This Is What John Told Me About Social Media And Will Make You Feel Confident Online - John Malecki (Podcast Post)

This episode is very inspiring! John Malecki from @john_malecki was a professional athlete and played football for years in the NFL. Then he transitioned into building stuff for others, and branded himself online as “The Builder.” He has done extremely well on social media, and you are sure to come away with at least one useful social media marketing tip that will help you increase your social presence online.

This show is packed full of powerful quotes like these:

• “If you want to build a tribe, you have to be putting content out there consistently.”
• “With any social platform you want to make sure you are not focusing on the numbers. Focus on building a quality group of community-based individuals who are invested in what you are doing.”
• “If you decide to run Facebook ads, make sure that you have a one click call-to-action on there. Don’t run ads just to get views. It’s not worth it.”
• “Never be afraid to ask questions. We all want the industry to win. So never be afraid to reach out to someone you look up to.”
• And Much, Much More! 

Dig in to this episode today. Be Inspired! And then go take action on one tip you learned. 

#Protractors – Making A Difference! 

>>> Here’s The Entire Blog Post! >>>

John Malecki was born in Pittsburgh and was raised just outside of the city. His father worked in construction and John eventually gained some skills and learned how to use tools simply by being surrounded by opportunities to do free labor under his father or other family members.

However, throughout his childhood and into his young adult life, John wanted to play professional football. After graduating from high school, he received a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh and played football during the four years of his undergraduate career.

John then graduated with a degree in marketing and decided to pursue a career in the NFL directly after graduating from university. During this time, John played for several different teams, such as the Tennessee Titans, the Cleveland Browns, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Eventually, John had the privilege of being selected to play for his hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

John claims that what helped him succeed is the fact that he always tried to keep a positive attitude despite the stresses of his life at the time. According to John, negativity has a way of building, and that the best way to succeed in anything is to approach the next day as if it is an opportunity.

He attributes his positive attitude and his ability to improve to his experiences in sports, and John admits that this helps him to this day with his business.

For instance, John always thinks about worst case scenarios and how things could go wrong, and this helps him prepare for those possibilities. Sports also taught him the importance of scheduling and putting in the hours of work in order to succeed.

Near the end of his football career, his heart wasn’t really in it anymore. He had been playing football for so long that he felt he didn’t know much else. For John, this was a sign that it was time to move on with his life.

He had picked up woodworking as a hobby while playing football, but afterwards it began to occupy more and more of his time, eventually becoming his new career.

Initially, John had some intriguing job offers to work for other people, but was attracted to the idea of starting his own business. He opened a business with an old teammate, and after they parted ways he really started pursuing contracting full time.

At this time, John was doing everything from interior design to minor contracting and custom furniture.

John says that what is most important to him is building a network as well as a business. Additionally, John aims to not only grow his business but to inspire others.

Using Social Media to Market Your Brand

In the beginning of his experiences with social media, John simply shared content on his pages and people began to inquire about what he could do.

He always said yes.

Soon, he discovered that he could easily market his work on Instagram.

Social media is the tool that really jumpstarted John’s business, as it allowed him to both build relationships and show his work to potential clients.

In addition to his Instagram, John has a youtube channel and a podcast to inspire other contractors. 

A friend of John’s created a website where he put his work, but he would later learn how to redo the website himself in an effort to rebrand. He didn’t really know where he wanted his brand to be, and by rebuilding his website by himself, John had control of where his brand was heading. He invested his time and effort into how he could build his site and brand on social media and his website. He began to get inquiries directly from Instagram to his e-mail. By e-mail, he tries to get a gauge for the client’s interest, budget, and design inspiration.

With the growing popularity of sites like Pinterest and Houzz, more and more clients are coming to him with plenty of visuals in mind already, so e-mail is how they can simply direct those ideas toward him.

John says that social media poses a unique opportunity for contractors to market themselves. For example, social media platforms like Instagram and Youtube allow John to engage with clients before they even meet him, so they already “know him” and his brand before they hire him.

Because of this, John says that people are more likely to reach out with work proposals instead of initial interest, which does not always equate to a job offer.

According to John, “the more you put yourself out there, the more comfortable people are going to be,” so revealing content of behind the scenes work on social media builds trust and respect from both clients and fellow contractors.

How to Build a Following on Social Media

When it comes to social media, John stresses the importance of building community based content.

John has found success by refusing to use social media as a strictly marketing tool, and by using it as a means to share inspirational and engaging content instead.

Instagram’s algorithms love consistency, John remarks. According to him, you have to have consistent content to build a following. To do this, John suggests to post daily, or twice a day, and to use the new Instagram story feature. John says that he even posted while he was on vacation, and that this was a great opportunity to showcase the work of others.

John believes that this helps build community and shows his personal investment in the community.

When asked about the frequency of his own posts, John says that he tries to post once in the morning and once in the evening, approximately 12 hours apart.

On top of that, he shoots everything with a DSLR camera and edits the pictures before posting. But, John admits that even quick, unedited pictures taken from phone cameras can make engaging content. For busy individuals just getting started on social media platforms, John thinks that backlogging content is also a good strategy.

In terms of trying to gain a following, hashtags are crucial. John advises to find hashtags that are relevant as well as niche, because those will offer more opportunity to be noticed and even included in a top nine feed.

In regards to his Youtube following, John just hit over 22,000 subscribers after starting his channel 18 months ago. He says that his initial videos weren’t as professional as his newer videos, but the content was what drove them in terms of success.

To John, Youtube is similar to Instagram in terms of putting out quality content- his numbers started to grow when he put out consistent content.

But, John asserts that, with any social platform, you want to make sure you’re not focusing on the numbers.

Instead, John stresses the importance of creating a community. At the end of the day, John advises others to focus on the people and the reasons for which you’re posting, not the numbers.

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Thank you for joining me today. If you have any further questions or comments, please join the conversation in the comments below.

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Follow me on Instagram for behind-the-scenes stuff. And if you’re wanting to go deeper with marketing your business, you may get a free copy of my new book Contractor Marketing Simplified.