Episode 93: Navigating Social Media with Mari Smith

Navigating social media can be pretty difficult, especially when it comes to your online business. Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is hailed as the premier Facebook marketing expert and one of the most influential and knowledgeable new media thought leaders in the world. In fact, Facebook headhunted and hired Mari to go on tour with the company to teach business owners across the United States how to grow their businesses using Facebook!  Forbes recently described Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” Mari is an in-demand speaker and travels the world to keynote and train at major events. She also serves as Brand Ambassador for many leading companies.  She has over 1.7 million followers on her various social channels and is the author of The New Relationship Marketing and coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day.   Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: How did you become such an expert on Facebook? In order to become an expert, you have to put in 10,000 hours into your skill. Be unwavering in your focus. FOCUS= Follow One Course Until Successful. It helps you keep on track. Overall it is a universal mindset with fear mongering. You can get really upset or you can be a calming voice of how to overcome or make a change regarding a problem you see, like pet food recalls or puppy mills. Mari encourages us to be the calming voice. You have to be mindful of what you post for relationship marketing. Treat people with respect and use proper social etiquette even online. Ask yourself “would I be comfortable with this...appearing on the front page or on a google search. Even more, would you be okay with your Mom seeing it? Quiet your ego and try to diffuse tangents. Don’t be drawn into petty conversations. There are always screenshots that will be your digital ink. How can you add value to your business with Facebook? You become a leader in social media by using groups and stories. Have a good strategy for your stories and you easily convert your personal Instagram to a business Instagram and have those post directly to your Facebook, which drives traffic to your website.   Show Highlights: Mari’s expertise in Facebook and how she got started on her path to becoming the “Queen of Facebook.” [2:30] How to FOCUS for success [6:45] Creating meaningful relationships on Facebook [9:50] New business skills that everyone needs [13:10] Benefits of setting up Facebook Groups [15:30] Advice on how to build your online community [23:00] Links: Find more about Mari Smith and her new book at www.marismith.com Check out The 12 Biggest Social Media Marketing Mistakes Businesses Make at http://www.marismith.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/12_Social_Media_Mistakes-MariSmith.pdf Downloadable Offer: Free PDF download. Mari Smith's recommended Video Gear List for Facebook Live broadcasts: www.marismith.com/fblive Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review' Transcript: Bella: This is episode 93 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I have got the queen of Facebook to bring to you. I am so excited. For those of you who do not know Mari Smith, you are going to be a follower of hers just as I am. This woman is absolutely incredible. She is often referred to as the queen of Facebook. She is Facebook’s premier marketing expert and one of the most influential and knowledgeable people in the world on Facebook. Facebook actually headhunted her. I mean, you guys, this is how amazing she is. Mari has gone on tour with the company to teach business owners across the United States how to grow their business using Facebook. Forbes recently described Mari as the premier Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks her for help. Mari is an in-demand speaker, travels the world to keynote at major events, and she also serves as a brand ambassador for many companies. She’s such a wealth of information. Her Facebook Lives are just always so full of value. She has over 1.7 million followers on Facebook, you guys—that’s a lot. She’s the author of The New Relationship Marketing and co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. Wow, Mari, welcome to the show. Mari: My pleasure, Bella. It’s lovely to be here, and I’m so glad that we had the pleasure of meeting in person recently. Bella: Yes, it was amazing. Mari, what strikes me about you is that you’re the people’s person. A lot of people who’ve achieved such a high pinnacle in their career are untouchable. But you’re just so accessible, so down to earth and friendly. I really admire that about you. Before we get into Facebook, I want you to dial it back a little bit to when you first heard about Facebook and how you became the queen of Facebook. Because I think our listeners—dog walkers and pet sitters—are all striving to become experts in their own field. Mari: I emigrated from Scotland to San Diego, California in 1999. I basically came with 50 British pounds in my pocket—about $100—two suitcases, and I knew one person, the person who invited me. I was so determined to find a new life. I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that this was a defining moment. I was born in Canada but spent 20 years in Scotland, where my parents are from. I had not been an entrepreneur up to that point, but I had always wanted to run my own business. For the longest time, I was preparing—getting ready and putting all the foundational pieces in place—and that’s when the invitation came through. Fast forward from 1999 to 2007, I was doing information marketing, e-commerce consulting, teaching, coaching, webinars—one of the first to do teleseminars and webinars—and I did a lot of public speaking. Then Facebook fell in my lap in 2007. It was Star Wars Day, May the 4th—May the Fourth be with you! It was a magical moment. I’d been invited to be on a beta test team for an app, and I thought, “Well, I better have a Facebook account.” I went to Facebook.com, and up to that point, I had been on LinkedIn, Friendster, Ryze, MySpace—all kinds of predecessors that don’t even exist now. But when I saw Facebook, it was like all the angels were singing. There was something magical about it. It had uniformity—I loved the shade of blue, and I loved that everything was in the same place on every profile. More importantly, I found that I could be doing interviews, reaching out, and building relationships with people I admired—speakers, authors, people whose newsletters I followed. I thought, “This is magic.” I started telling everyone, “Are you on Facebook? Let me show you how.” Bella: It offered that 3D dimension—you could see a bit behind the scenes of people’s lives. Mari: Exactly. To the degree people were comfortable sharing. By 2008 or 2009, people were quite open on Facebook. But I always say, you must have a private life. Don’t put everything online. Facebook keeps files on us, so be comfortable knowing it’s out there. Bella: So you started with Facebook and were really drawn to it. Take us from then to now. How did you become the queen of Facebook? Mari: As Malcolm Gladwell says, to become a master or expert, you need 10,000 hours of study, experience, and practice. That’s what I’ve done over the last 11 years. I joke about being an overnight success ten years in the making. Around 2009, my career really took off after being immersed in Facebook for two years. The key takeaways are that I was unwavering in my focus. I use “FOCUS” as an acronym: Follow One Course Until Successful. Every year I pick one word as a theme to guide my personal and professional direction—words like focus, team, commitment, leverage. I still believe there’s never been anything like Facebook. Sure, they’ve taken flack for privacy and customer service, but as business owners, we need to ask: how can I use this platform to grow my business? My passion for Facebook has never wavered. I also try to be the voice of calm when others panic over algorithm changes or negative press. I tell people, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater—use the platform to grow your business. Bella: I love what you said—it’s a mindset. You could pile on negativity, or you could calm people down and find solutions. Mari: Exactly. I work with small business owners up to Fortune 500 companies, doing training and consulting. The key is to use Facebook for connection, not chaos. Bella: Speaking of connection, you’ve written about relationship marketing. Tell us how people can create meaningful relationships on Facebook—and what mistakes they make. Mari: I’ve written a few books on Facebook, but it’s almost impossible to keep them evergreen because the platform changes so much. My book The New Relationship Marketing focuses on how to create “know, like, and trust” digitally—what I call virtual rapport. You do it by being mindful, having proper social etiquette, treating people with respect even when you disagree, and thinking before you post. Ask yourself three questions: Would I be comfortable seeing this on the front page of The New York Times? Would I be okay with this showing up in a Google search years from now? Would I be proud if my mom saw this? I call it the “mom test.” You should also ask, “What’s my deepest intent?” Are you trying to be right or to serve? Quiet your ego and focus on lifting others up. You don’t lift yourself up by dragging others down. I see people online criticizing others about being “experts,