Rethink Social Media: A Case Study

I have to admit, I am in love with social media marketing. It has people banging down my door these days to work with me.

BUT … it didn't always work this way.

"SOCIAL MEDIA? YUCK!"

Like many of you, I thought social media was a fad. That it was a poor use of my time. That it was a platform for attention seekers. Then, I caught myself saying those things out loud, and it stopped me in my tracks. Throughout my life, anytime I disliked something I didn't understand or someone I didn't actually know, it would make me stop and reconsider my position because I knew this is my ego getting in my way.

Once I realized it, I shifted to trying to understand why these things and people are successful. They have reached a point where they have haters and this is the greatest indicator of success. Wannabes often hate those they want to be. I never wanted to be a wannabe or a hater. Instead, I want to understand the hated, because they usually have done what others would kill to have done. So, I turned my disliking attitude toward social media into one of curiosity ... and it has changed my life.

WHERE I STARTED

Since losing my career and getting zeroed financially a few years back, I had to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up (again). Since I loved dentistry, I wanted to contribute to the profession even though my hand no longer could. So, I decided to pivot from clinical dentistry to coaching dentists. I wasn't going to just jump in and wing it. This was my second chance at dentistry and I wanted to be amazing. I went back and studied what I had done to be successful, figured out how to make it teachable, and started writing my online program in early 2016. By February of 2017, it was ready to roll out for the public.?

I had done a lot of marketing in my practice and had been called “the marketing guru” by colleagues, which baffled me at the time because all I had done was employ tactics that others said “didn't work”. I knew that what worked a few years back might be outdated. So, I set myself on a path to study current tactics.?

I started attending marketing conferences and got roped into Facebook ads by some charming gents who promised me the moon. A few months later, I was tens of thousands of dollars poorer and had not gotten a single coaching client from their tactics. So, Facebook ads got blacklisted from my studies at the time. I went back to grassroots tactics, talked to colleagues, asked them to beta test my program, held lectures, and word started to spread. I started getting private coaching clients and started to pay off my costly Facebook ad blunder.?

In January of 2018, I had surgery that resulted in a devastating infection that sidelined me. By the end of March 2018, I was still stuck laying down much of the day and bored out of my tree. I had run out of Netflix shows to watch and needed some brainy stimulation. I settled on studying social media again to figure out how to stimulate my company's growth. I couldn't afford to make costly mistakes, so my learning curve had to be with FREE tactics to grow my following. LinkedIn was the first course I took.

IN WALTZED LINKEDIN

As I threw myself into my studies, I started to realize how little I knew about LinkedIn's power. It soon became clear that LinkedIn was about far more than just having a public profile that others could creep on. It was a powerful networking and employment tool. I had an inkling this was going to be the fastest way to get the word out there about what I was doing.

The day I started building my profile, my following on LinkedIn was 362.?After fixing up my profile, tidying up my credentials, and starting to reach out to people, my following started to grow. Then, I got brave and started to record videos of my opinions on different subject matters in the industry. I did this sitting in my office, using natural light, with the camera and microphone on my computer. It didn't take long to start getting my small following interacting with my posts and videos - commenting and liking.

IN TWIRLED INSTAGRAM

By the end of October 2018, my following had surpassed 7500 industry followers on LinkedIn. It was addictive to watch my following grow and I decided to neglect other social media platforms to master this one platform first. In fact, I had become so enthralled with LinkedIn that I had shut off my Instagram completely because I didn’t have time for it.

Since LinkedIn was becoming predictably successful, I thought it was time to up my game and bring in Instagram. I had 162 followers at the end of October. I started posting 1 min shorties of the videos I was using on LinkedIn along with other content. 4 months later, I had over 4000 Instagram followers for @mybusinessdoc.?

THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA

The power of these platforms have surpassed my expectations.?

In 12.5 months, I went from 362 to 12181 followers on LinkedIn.?

In 5 months, I went from 162 to 4861 followers on Instagram.?

When I walk into industry events, people come up to me and say, “You’re Dr. Angela Mulrooney - the retired dentist. I love your posts on Social Media - you are such an inspiration!”

People now call me to hire me to speak at their events.

People now reach out to me to help them with their career and marketing.

I went from begging people to give me a chance, to having people seeking me out for my expertise.

THE NUMBERS

Accolades are all well and good, but did it mean anything for my business? I like to measure what my efforts convert to in terms of dollars and cents. So here is what a $0 marketing investment converted to in a 12 month period:

• 2 International Speaking Engagements
• 20 National Speaking Engagements
• 10x growth in clients
• 6 figures of revenue

Moving forward into the second year of using social media marketing, I have added:

• 1 full-time assistant
• 1 part-time event marketer
• 1 new coach with 2 more joining later this year
• 1 new division for Influencer Marketing to help others do what I did

RETHINK SOCIAL MEDIA

If you are still stuck with the opinion that social media doesn't work, I want you to rethink that opinion. Social media is neither a fad, nor a waste or time, nor just for attention seekers.

It is here to stay, and, when used well, it’s a game changer for your business!

Want to learn how to do it for yourself? Email me at [email protected] and we’ll set up a FREE marketing strategy call.?

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