Hello Ladies

Technically this post is more hustle/passion related than hair related but it is just in time for International Women’s Day.
I attended a panel discussion at Social Media Week Lagos a few days ago. The discussion called “ Hair We Go!! Technology and the Natural Hair Movement”. The aim of the discussion was for social media gurus and top professionals in the hair care industry to share tips on using social media to grow your brand, create influential content and turn your passion into real income.

So many of us ladies, in addition to having careers, have other passions we blog about or would love to turn into a successful business. Often, it is more about purpose and fulfilment than making money.
Whatever your reasons maybe, it is becoming increasingly impossible create a brand/business without social media.

When I created Hairducation, I just wanted to spread the gospel of good hair care and have somewhere to send ladies who had questions about my hair. It was and will always be a passion first thing for me.
It has however been a blessing that in addition to me writing and hopefully helping ladies with their hair, I am able run an international hair care consulting service. I certainly would not have this opportunity without technology and social media.

I think it is important, almost a responsibility to encourage and uplift other ladies in the way that so many do for me. With this in mind, I thought I would share some of the notes and lessons I took from the panel discussion and I hope you find it as beneficial as I did.

To all my ladies working hard to make their passions and dreams come alive and flourish, I see you and this post is for you.

How to grow your blog, brand, business, side or main hustle through social media

In no particular order;

1) Consistency and Quality
Try to have a consistent or regular schedule for releasing your content. Be consistent in the type of content you put out but don’t make the mistake of putting out poor quality material just to be consistent. You should always strive to maintain or improve the quality of your content.

2) Anticipation
Take the time to figure out what your readers/followers want to read about or see and let them know it’s coming soon. Give them something to look forward to and they will keep coming back for more.

3) Respond
It is important to respond to as many comments/questions that you receive. Build a rapport with your readers/followers.

4) Identify your niche
You have to figure out what your niche is.
It could be a specific area such as hair care in my case or something broad that encompasses a variety of things such as life style or even business consulting. It could be anything!! No matter what you are into there is community out there that is interested in what you have to offer or share.
Make sure it is something you enjoy and have real passion for otherwise you won’t get very far before the stress of blogging/business gets too much for you.

Don’t be all over the place. Try to figure out what you want to talk and stay relevant. For instance, wouldn’t it be off key if you came here and saw a blog post about celeb gossip!!

5) Put out genuine information.
You don’t want to risk losing your credibility by putting out information which is incorrect. Take the time to verify or research your information before posting it on your site or social media pages.

6) Try to avoid mixing up your private life with your brand.
This is a personal favourite of mine but it is becoming increasingly difficult to have a clear defined line and in some cases the two are interlinked.
For instance, a lifestyle blogger will probably share his or her personal lifestyle or a religious blogger will probably want to use their own spiritual walk to show how much they have grown.
I think what has worked for me is deciding from the onset how much of my personal life needed to be out there (fortunately for me, not a lot) and how much I was willing and comfortable to share.

7) You DONT have to be on every Platform
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr, Google+, and whatever major platform is coming up soon……
It may be tempting to create pages for your brand on all these platforms, if you are able to do so and put out great content consistently on all of them, great!!!
Unfortunately, if you create and publicise pages/platforms but literally have almost zero content there it can come across as lazy It is better to pick just a few that you can focus on being great at.  Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

8) Choose a virtual mentor
We don’t have real access to the people we would love to learn from but thanks to social media you can follow their pages.  Learn from them and be inspired by them.

9) Collaborate
Collaborate with others in your field. This is a definite win win situation that exposes your brand and work to many new readers.

10) Hash tag Power
Learn the power of using hash tags. Hash tags help expose your brand and work to anyone searching for the terms you have used and it is also great for promoting events you are involved in or giveaways you are hosting. I didn’t realise how important hash tags were until recently and it’s something you certainly shouldn’t sleep on like I did.

11) Make that money – Learn how to turn your followers into clients
Create a product or offer a service that solves a problem, need or want of your readers. Inform your readers/followers of your services or products but don’t overdo it. If every post feels like a marketing pitch it can be major turn off.

If you have a passion for something and do it well (and often free) for long enough, the offers will come rolling in and opportunities will present themselves.
My advice however, is that you should be selective and careful with “HOW” you make money. Try to do it with integrity and in a honest and open way that does not exploit your readers or take their trust for granted.

I made sure I got a professional certification before I began offering my coaching service and have plans to do even more in-depth courses in the near future. Professional qualifications give you a leg to stand on.
I have lost track of how many endorsement offers I have turned down because I know the quality of the products would do nothing for my readers hair.
In my opinion, Hairducation’s biggest assets are its readers and followers on social media. I would like to think I have worked pretty hard to earn your trust and Lord knows I plan to keep it.
I hope you have learned something good from this post. I am working on the first educative post of the month which will be all about grey hair; embracing it or covering it.

Happy international women’s day ladies ……

See you soon

x

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow