Community
"Community with Kristina Bartold" is a podcast focused on helping entrepreneurs and small businesses grow their network, increase their impact using marketing techniques like social media, increase sales, and bring in their ideal client using their digital community.
This show will answer questions like how do I make more sales in my business, what should I post on social media, or how do I grow my following?
Join Kristina twice a week to learn how to grow your business and community!
Community
Are Your Priorities Straight On Social Media? How to Create Community-First Content That Converts.
Is the content you’re creating community-first content?
In this episode of Community we’re talking all about what it really means to create community-first content, build a community-first content strategy and why connection always trumps virality.
Do you want content that actually converts on social media?
You may be looking at the wrong metrics.
Whether you're posting to Instagram, recording a podcast, or launching a new offer, this episode unpacks how to move away from vanity metrics and lean into cultivating meaningful and profitable relationships.
Tune to start building the trust that sells today!
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Hi everyone and welcome to my podcast, community. I'm Christina and I'm a passionate community builder, business owner, investor and lover of all things sales and marketing. On this show, I bring you top sales and social media tips, plus bring you experts who are going to rock your world when it comes to learning how to grow your community. Community has been my secret sauce in scaling our business and I know it'll be yours too. Enjoy, hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of Community.
Speaker 1:Today I'm talking about a topic that I love, which, of course, is community. Most of my episodes definitely have like a community undertone to them, but this one's a little more explicit and it is about how we can create community first content, and this is something that I feel like a lot of people make mistakes with. They are very keen to be able to, you know, put content out, maybe, or maybe even show up in their stories or answer a few DMS, but they're not really thinking about their community in mind when they're actually starting to build out their content plan. So creating like a really community first strategy is so important when you are trying to build out your business and really just kind of continuing to serve your ideal clients. Really, let's kick this off with the truth, which is that people don't buy from brands. They buy from people they trust and, of course, you know you're buying a Diet Pepsi. We don't know the person behind Diet Pepsi, but they've built up brand loyalty over time and they've kind of earned that right. A lot of us, when we're in the online space, we're not there yet. I don't even want to be like a household name. I don't even want to be like a Diet Pepsi by any means, but I definitely want to um know that when people are talking about me, they're definitely making the connection between what it is that we do and how we serve people. So we're seeing also just from our clients.
Speaker 1:As you know, we run a marketing agency where we have um over um 85 clients. We do stuff on the social media side, we do stuff on the podcasting side, um, and we love that right. So we help people build community in so many different ways. But what we've noticed is there's definitely a shift in the type of content that's going out. There's definitely a shift away from bandy metrics, where we're looking for things like followers and we're obsessed with making sure that followers are our priority, and we're really moving towards the depth of the engagement. So, you know, are your posts starting conversations, I will tell you, and my friend, mallory Rowan, who is amazing, she's built an amazing community. She spoke at our event just a few weeks ago and one of the things that she talked about was that you know she's had posts that haven't done that well, but that's actually the stuff that brings in clients.
Speaker 1:So, and then the stuff that does super well and is viral isn't actually bringing in the right people. And if that's the case, what we want to be thinking about is what is actually your priority? Like, is your priority to go viral and get a bunch of followers, or is your priority to get new clients and make money? And number two has always been mine, and so we're really seeing depth of engagement being more of the interest. So, do people comment, do people like, do people share? All of those things have been such a big piece of us thinking about what success looks like.
Speaker 1:And really I want to talk about connection in our world on social isn't just about feeling good, so it's not about like I'm not telling you this to be like oh, like you know, like you get to talk to people and you're going to feel so good and like your audience is going to love you and it's just gonna be so fun. And you know like, yeah, sometimes that definitely happens, where, I would say, making community focused content has a warmer feeling sometimes than giving like, really like big social media advice. But it's actually strategic and there's a strategy behind being in community with your followers so that you're able to really build out know, like and trust when it's time for someone to buy. So the first thing is that connection trumps virality every single time, in my opinion. Maybe you think differently.
Speaker 1:I spoke at an event in Arizona a few months ago and someone on the panel was like oh, virality is like the key. Everyone wants to go viral. And I was like I don't want to go viral. And it was just a funny like kind of interaction because obviously him and I had a totally different strategy for what we saw as successful in our businesses, and so the big mindset shift that, like everyone needs to get into is that you don't need everyone. You need the right people.
Speaker 1:So getting a ton of followers that aren't great or aren't helpful, um, that aren't ever going to buy from you, that's actually not helpful to your business, right? So, uh, we all love it. You know our moms follow us. Uh, mom's not a big social media girl but, like my mom, follows me on LinkedIn, but you know your mom follows you, your aunts follow you, whatever. It's great for engagement, but if they're not going to buy from you, it's not really your ideal client. So we've seen it before where people have gone viral and their followers have grown, but in the wrong area, right when you know they're not really able to convert the people, it doesn't really stick and the people aren't who you actually want to sell with. So viral reach might feel good, but conversion ultimately comes from trust and relationships. So when you're actually having like great relationships with people, that's actually where conversion comes from. That is where you know you really see the needle being moved, um in in your business, and so we've definitely seen posts that have had lower reach.
Speaker 1:Or I have, you know, clients who, um, I have clients who have maybe 5,000 followers who every time they sell something, people buy it. And even for me in our first business, I had 1,000 followers. Every time I sold something, people bought it, and the reason for that was because I had a lot of trust and so because I had a lot of trust. People were into it. So reach gets eyes, but connection gets action, and so when people feel connected to you, they want to buy from you.
Speaker 1:The next is what is community? First, content? So when we think about community, it's it's really content that speaks with your audience, not at them really. So you're connecting um, like really connecting with them, you are really making like conversation. You're really just having like dialogue rather than, rather than it being about, you know, you're like giving hot tips, hot tips, hot tips, hot tips, but not making any any like relationship, and so this can include things like asking questions, you know, storytelling where people can see like okay, me too, vulnerability, maybe you, you, you share something vulnerable. Some of my best posts have been things that have had like a really like vulnerable flair to them, celebrating your people.
Speaker 1:I like this is something that we do not do enough, which is, you know, talking about our client wins and not from a perspective of, look, my client just had a win and I am like I'm, I'm behind the win, like even for our social media clients, like I know there's lots of things that go into successful social Um, but really just always giving that opportunity for that feedback loop, so that people feel like they can have conversations with you. Um, you want to make sure that always feels like a conversation, not a pitch, and that's hard right In our regular world where you got to make money, you know it's. You want to have like bold conversations. That's important, but you want to make sure that it feels authentic and feels like a conversation. There's a bunch of things that you could do in terms of format that really works well. So one is like polls and questions. So I'm asking questions. I love this, the slider poll, I love the voting, I love when people are able to put in answers. All of those things allow me to have a better idea for my audience.
Speaker 1:Um, and something that people do not do enough is market research. Like market research for their, their clients, so, or with their clients. Um, so, even if you're, you know, putting out a new offer, I love to ask people what resonates, and then when I make a sales page, I'm actually able to use that language. So people are like, oh, wow, that speaks to me and it's like, yeah, cause you said it and I'm responding to your need. You can also do carousels. People love carousels right now with like really good life lessons. It also rewards you in the apps because people are scrolling, they're staying there. That's what the apps are looking for. They want people like in on it. Um, ugc or spotlight and community members we did this for high vibe women, where we had so many of our our amazing members do little testimonial videos and they were amazing. People had like the best things to say and they were so cool to use. And then behind the scenes content this is one that people are always so scared to do, but I also am like okay, like you should do it.
Speaker 1:People love the messy middle, so we love to be part of people's journeys. No one wants perfection. We don't want to see people who are like perfect and who are you know, have all their shit together and everything's like awesome. We want to be part of people's journey. So even when, like, we have a rough season in business, that isn't my time to hide. That's actually my time to like, come forward, because I want everyone to be on the come up with me. So, really like behind the scenes, showing that messy middle is so crucial to being able to build that know, like and trust with people, because if people think you're always only showing the good, then they think there's something sketched there. But when you're really fully yourself, that's where the magic happens. As an entrepreneur, you're building something amazing. But are you taking care of yourself along the way?
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Speaker 1:The next is like why do we think this converts? Is because we know that connection builds trust, trust builds buy-in and buy-in builds sales Over time. That is what happens, whether someone buys from you today or they buy from you in three years, you do not know. So I always laugh about this, because there's times I do discovery calls with people and they're like, no, not today, and I'm like, okay, that's fine. And then you know in two years later they're like, hey, I've been thinking about you basically since. I really want to work with you. I'm so excited, right, I can't plan for that. So I just always show up like everything's an opportunity, and then I'm always rewarded for it.
Speaker 1:And really, when people feel seen, they're more likely to engage and invest and buyers are more and more savvy because we have more things. There are tons of social media agencies, there's tons of people doing podcasts, we're competing with AI. There is just so much out there. So really, when we're thinking about that, we want to make sure that people know that we are who they trust and they want to align with creators, brands, service providers who get them. So you get their struggle, you get what's going on with them, you get what they're feeling. This is really helpful and a warm audience from a close to Instagram community is way more likely to convert than cold traffic from something like an app. So this is something that people do not understand. Always oh, I would say 50% of the discovery calls I do.
Speaker 1:People come on hot looking for ads and we don't even run ads. I always refer ads out because I'm just not interested in doing them. I've never been into it, um, but really they, they just know that, they think or they think that ads are what is going to save their business, but they don't have a warm community. My friend Tiffany, she does amazing work with ads. She's a fractional CMO. I love her so much, but one of the things she always says is she's like, if people don't have good organic, they're not going to have good ads. So if you don't have a good community, this is not the place for you. Right? Ads are not your next investment. So what I would recommend, what I would recommend um, what I would really recommend is just going in on, like, really building relationship and making that kind of the forefront of your business and going from there.
Speaker 1:So what does this look like in practice when we're talking about this Like? What does this look like in terms of um, what does this look like in terms of of how you can do this. The first is, um, really like more relational captions content and less guru type work. This is a deviation from what we've been telling people right, For a long time social has been how do we like really show people that you know we're, we have authority. Like this is how we build authority. I still think that this is important, but really like showing up as yourself is going to be so much more important and authentic than showing up as this, like guru, especially if you don't feel like you're there. The next is that um, comments Trump, uh likes every day. So if you are looking for like a key performance indicator of how your social is doing, what is getting people to talk to you? So what is getting people to comment, dm, ask questions, what is the stuff that is actually moving the needle for you guys to have conversations? That is going to be the thing that really really moves the needle. The next is micro communities Things like Instagram broadcast channels, close friends, subscriber only content.
Speaker 1:That is where people feel like in the know. That's like our version of the social business club where we do a lot of coaching. We're always kind of in on there. We don't you know use. I actually don't utilize any of those of those things. I could see how they would be really helpful. And Instagram broadcast channels are awesome because people are really invested in you and you can send voice notes, you can talk to them, so that's pretty cool. Close friends I've actually seen it where people like add everybody to their close friends. So it's like kind of like a fake thing, where it like feels like you're in on something and then subscriber only content.
Speaker 1:If you're like someone who shares a lot of like you know, insider tips or scoop about your niche, that is great. That's not something I'm really that interested in doing because I have so many free platforms, so much long form, but that is definitely an option. And again, slow, steady depth over fast, flashy reach right. So if you can have greater conversations, deeper conversations with people, that is like really, really the key and really like even for us, like we do this kind of stuff all the time where, when we're selling stuff, you know we're talking about the behind the scenes. We're seeing what people are responding to, what's causing DMs.
Speaker 1:Recently, we just launched our High Vibe Women event. By the time this is out, we've been probably wheeling and dealing this thing, but we sold our VIP tickets out in two days. Why that happened was because we were really intentional about the content we were putting out there, the conversations we were having. We were in the DMs with people, we offered payment plans. We were hearing what people were saying, we were responding to the questions. We haven't announced a single speaker, right, and people were still keen to buy tickets. At this point we're almost I think almost 50% sold out.
Speaker 1:So that is an example of a community-based practice. We're not out there being like hello, we are like the gurus on creating community, like come. No, we're like take a look at what we've done, take a look at what we've tried. Here's behind the scenes and people have been really into that. And the other thing, too, is that if someone asks you a great question, use that as content fuel, right, so that is like the best way you can get ideas about what kind of thing could be something that people want to hear from, whether that's acknowledging your audience, like calling them in, asking them what they think, asking them to share your stuff, asking them to hear what resonates, getting them to be able to connect with you All of that stuff makes a really big difference and also elevating your community talking about their wins.
Speaker 1:This is something even Maria and I are working on so much, and even Ben on my team was going to probably do the show notes on this episode, but I was telling him how we had these amazing analytics from a client and he was like you should send those to me so we can make content, and I didn't even think about that, like I was like, oh yeah, probably Right, I want to see that kind of stuff like really happen and I really want to talk about the great stuff that's been happening on our team, and those are the things that people want to see and they want to be behind the scenes. So the other piece is and lastly, is that your content doesn't need to be louder, it just has to be closer, and so I would recommend you to just really build community. Make content that you think people are gonna respond to, make content that you think people are interested in. Focus less on virality. Like you know, of course, there's a time and place. We wanna reach new people.
Speaker 1:Reels are a great way to do that, but really like stories and your feed and all the things that you're doing there. Like all the things that you're doing there, like try to actually connect with people so you can hear from them what is impactful. And I would love for you to screenshot the episode tag someone in your community that you would love to connect with. So if you're like, okay, this is somebody that I really want to connect with or I want to have a relationship with or I want to start the conversation with like that makes a big impact too because you're connecting them, you can start a dialogue.
Speaker 1:But I'm really just encouraging you to just like start conversations, go into your community and let me know a connection you're going to try to make this week and what kind of content you're going to try to try to engage your community, to connect with you a little bit more. So I would love to hear that. Send me a message and I can't wait to hear. Thanks so much for listening to community with me, christina Bartold, and I'm just so excited to continue the conversations. If you're looking to grow your community and learn more about social, join us at the social business clubca and use the code podcast to get your first month for a dollar. Share this episode with your friends and on social, or leave a review. It means the world you.
