Hello, and welcome to episode number 169 of The Shine Show. Today on this show, I'm going to share with you what to post on your socials when you're ramping up for a launch. But before we dive into that, I want to know if you are an eager online course launcher or if you are eager to learn how to get your course created and into the hands of many of your best students faster. I want to tell you about my mentor and friend Amy Porterfield. Amy has been my mentor since 2015 and over the years, she's helped me quit my job, stop hustling for one-on-one clients, and scale my income, creating more freedom for me and allowing me to build wealth for me and my family my way.

If you want to hear more about Amy and her program, Digital Course Academy, that'll be opening for enrollment soon and you want to know exactly how me and my team can help you accelerate your launch and make even more profits, then go to shineandsucceed.com/amy and get on the list to hear all about it. Giving up your time and freedom to make money is so 2009. Hi, I'm your host Salome Shillack and I help online course creators launch, grow, and scale their businesses with Facebook and Instagram ads, so that they can make more money and have an even bigger impact in the world. If you're ready to be inspired, to dream bigger, launch sooner, and grow your online business faster, then tune in because you are ready to shine and this is The Shine Show.

What do you post on your socials? I mean, I think that is a question most people are grappling with not just when they're ramping up for a launch, but just on a day-to-day basis. If you're anything like me and you can't stand the constant feeling of being on social media because you're sharing your everyday things like what coffee you're drinking or what you're wearing today or just pooping out your every single thought into the social atmosphere, it's exhausting even on the best of days. So, I am taking a completely different approach to social media. For those of you who know me well, you know I've been preaching for a very long time, "You don't need social media." All you need is to know how to build an audience. That is still true and I'm going to add a little bit of a shocker to that right now. So hold onto your hats, because what I'm about to say might shock you.

You also don't need ads. "Oh!" I hear that shy. You do not need ads. You don't need social media. What you do need is an audience on your email list. You need people on your email list. That's what you need because the real journey you take people on happens inside your email list. But here's the deal. 

Unfortunately, ads are getting more expensive. That's no secret. We all know that. But if you hang out with me, then you know that the sooner you start running ads, even at $5 a day, the better your chances are of building your list large enough to have a profitable launch. Now, at $5 a day, you're still going to need some hustle energy. You're still going to need to do some stuff on social media. My feeling right now is that social media is actually getting easier and easier to do.

If you think about Instagram and you're a writer, you can write and use images or if you're a video person, you can use reels. If you like being on all day, you can do stories, but you don't have to. There's turning into this whatever floats your boat. Whatever platform you want to use and whatever way you want to use it, as long as your ideal customer is there, you get to use it that way. And so, I want to share a little bit with you guys today about what to post on your socials when you're ramping up for a launch, because when you're ramping up for a launch, there's a specific strategy that I want you to keep in mind. 

It's funny, when we were planning for this episode, I asked my team, "What are the biggest issues people have with knowing what to post?"

Tanya, who I love dearly and who also has an online course and also has a side hustle because that's how I roll, I like employing women who are multi-passionate and who has lots of sticks in lots of fires, said she gets to a place where she wants the perfect strategy to batch content and then schedule it and look at her newsfeed and know that it looks beautifully branded and it all aligns and it looks like it's all part of the same brand. It's one of those stunning news feeds. But then when inspiration strikes, she wants to post something spontaneously and she worries that if she posts the spontaneous thing, it's going to mess with her scheduling and her system. 

And so then, she doesn't post the spontaneous thing but she also doesn't really want to sit down and try and crank out things that aren't spontaneous.

She doesn't plan the posts because she doesn't want to mess up the newsfeed and it just gets all too overwhelming and confusing and then she doesn't post anything. Ah, hands up if you've been there. I can definitely raise my hand. I have been there. Now, that's the state of the social media and then you start ramping up for a launch. You wake up one morning and you go, "Hot damn! I should have been posting on social media all along." And now, you're ramping up for a launch and you're like, "Ah, what do I post now?" First, we have to talk about different types of content when we're going to talk about what to post on social media when you're ramping up for a launch, because it's all well and good for me to just refer to content and what to post. But if I say, "Make a post on day X, Y, Z," and that's not really helping you, you're not going to be doing it anyway.

In order to get our heads around the concept of what to post on social media when we're ramping up for a launch, it's important to understand that there are different types of content and they each serve their own purpose. So, here are the three types of content that I want you to know about. The first type of content is why content. Why content helps your audience believe they can do it and it helps them see that there really is an opportunity in what you sell. It's that little glimmer of hope or that boost of encouragement that uplifts your audience. Why content is made up of stories. It's made up of testimonials without calling them testimonials. It's made up of successful students. It's made up of all the things that give you social proof. It is aspirational. It is anything that helps her believe that she can do it.

It reminds them why they started their business or started on this journey that you teach in the first place and it reminds them that other people have successfully achieved what they're trying to achieve. It calms their fears. It shows them that other people have done what they want to do. And so, it takes away the reason for them to believe that they could fail or that they will lose faith. Why content speaks to their motivation. It picks them up when they're feeling down and it reminds them to do the work to get the results. All of you can create why content. When I'm creating why content, it might be something like why I loved the day I was able to tell my boss, "I quit." I might be able to tell that story about the day I handed in my resignation and I knew it was 30 days away from resigning.

I expected to feel tremendous excitement, but what I actually went into was sort of a depression and an anxiety because I knew 30 days from now, I'm on my own and it was very scary. But you know what? Today, seven years later... Five years since I quit my job, seven years since I started the business, I wouldn't have it any other way. So I mean, I can flesh out that story and there're many ways I can tell that story. But when I tell that story, someone hears that and they think, "Yes, I want to quit my job. I have this dream. It's normal for me to feel fear. It's normal for me to have anxiety. But if she can do it, I can do it. If there're other women quitting their jobs, then I can do it too." And so that's how me telling my story becomes why content, okay? That's why content. You can come up with so many different pieces of why content and it's usually the things that connect emotionally to us. It also makes for really good engagement ads by the way.

The next piece of content is what content. What content gives them a methodology that shares your specific strategy or your specific take on the solution to their problem. It can include your coaching pillars. For example, if you have a unique five-pillar system or a five-step process, your specific methods for them to follow to achieve their desired results is what this is. This type of content is based when shared as an example of how you applied it. Example, Brooke Castillo, The Life Coach School. One of my favorite people to follow. Check her out. She has The Model. She just calls it The Model. It's the model for self coaching. She posts videos of her actually coaching the student through the model. And so, she'll show how she's going from circumstance to thought, to feeling, to action, to result and she'll demonstrate it.

She won't come on social media and teach the model, because that's just content dumping, right? She would coach someone through a challenge they're having using the model. That's what content. So people start to put themselves in the shoes of people we're talking about, which is effective for launches as it helps them see that there's a solution to their problem. When Brooke is coaching someone through her model and they see it work for the other person, they cannot not think it works, right? If she just teaches the content, if she just teaches the model, they don't know it works. They haven't seen it work. But if she demonstrates how it works, people who watch that content see it and they buy into it.

To get in front of the right audience and convince them that your product, your course, your package is the exact solution to the problem they're currently facing, your what content cannot just be facts you throw at your audience. It has to be a demonstration of the facts. It's very similar to what I teach the students inside the launch lounge when they're launching webinars: to tell stories of their students in their webinars as their students applied the principles of what they teach in their courses. So instead of dumping a bunch of facts on people in a webinar, you demonstrate your system by showing how other people have applied it. That's how you sell on a webinar.

Okay, third type of content: how content. How content is your course. Be warned, this is where I see one of the biggest mistakes. Now, this next point is crucial. I want you to get a pen and write this down. Tattoo it on your arm or on your face. No, don't tattoo it on your face. Maybe, just on your thigh. How content is the application of your strategy and should never be in any of your promotional material. If you start teaching on social platforms, unless you're giving away the whole form, then you're not empowering people. When you teach a little bit, but not the whole story, it limits them. It does not inspire them. It just leaves them with even more questions. I made this mistake when I started teaching Facebook ads. I would come on social media and try to teach people how to place the pixel on social media.

And the thing is, when you teach someone on social media a how thing, how to place the pixel, you empower them for five seconds, but you open up so many other doors to so many more questions. But because there wasn't an emotional connection and because you didn't help them understand that this how-to thing that you're doing links back to a lot of other strategies, it links back to a what thing, you just leave them in the middle of a desert. They don't relate to you because you haven't given them why and they don't know that you have the bigger solutions because you haven't given them what. You've just given them how. And so while it's tempting to think, "Well, I'm going to let them have a small win," it's literally like giving someone a glass of water who's in a desert and leaving them in the desert. That's a great metaphor. I just came up with that. That's brilliant. It's a glass of water in the desert.

What you should do instead is teach them to get out of the desert. Teach them that there is a beautiful, fabulous tropical island that they already have access to if they just come with you. How content shouldn't be shared on social media and you definitely don't want to share how content when you're leading up to a launch. If you share this type of content on social media, you will end up with a whole heap of free loaders who still only have half the answers. So, they're not necessarily your biggest fans because even though they've devoured every single piece of free content you've shared, they still don't have the full story because hello, they need to buy your course to get that.

They feel like you haven't given them enough to succeed. So, what do people like that do? They then move on to the next person who teaches too much and gives too much away for free. They ingest all of their information too and then the same pattern continues. These people actually never end up being empowered to make decisions for themselves. You don't need those people on your list. If they're checking you out because they know you're an expert in your field and you can help them, that's great. That's why we give away free content and that's literally why you're here listening to my free podcast right now.

Okay. Now, you understand the three types of content. Why content, that's your inspirational, motivational story; connection; helps them see themselves empowered and ready to make change and see themselves in the end result that they want. When you're getting ready to launch, you want to post a lot of that and you want to make sure that it is perfectly aligned with the dream state they want at the end of your course. And once you've painted that picture for them say, "If you want more of this, if this is your desire, if this is what you want to learn, you want to make sure you get on the wait list." Have a call to action that puts them somewhere and primes them. You are literally priming them for showing them the desired outcome.

That's what you post on social media. You can post some what content, but post it as a demonstration. Post it as what content but shown from not you teaching the what, show it from people experiencing the what. Stories of your students, successes your students have celebrated, how they've used your system, how they've used your program, what they have uncovered about themselves, what they have achieved. That's the type of what content and zero how content. Zero, none of it. All right. Now, you know the types of content that you need to post before you go into a launch. Now, I want to also talk to you about three different content formats that you need to focus on before you go into a launch. Now, the name of this episode is What To Post On Social Media, but here comes the bonus piece. 

This is your bonus piece. There are three formats that you need to think about. The first one is your long format content. For me, that's podcasting. For you, it might be blogging or it might be YouTube-ing or it might be vlogging or it might be just emailing. It might be just the email that you send to your list once a week. When you are planning the content in the lead up to your launch, you start with your long form content. You start by asking yourself, "What why content and what, what content does my audience need to hear?" Let's say, you're podcasting. What do they need to hear in order to believe in themselves to achieve the outcome that you're teaching them in your course, and in order for them to see how other people have done this? So, start with long form content.

The second form of content that is also secondary to your long form content is your emails. Once you've mapped out your communication strategy for your long form content, so let's say podcast, the thing that complements that and pushes it out to more people are emails to your email list. So, your email communication is dictated by what you've got in your long form content. Once you've written your emails and you've created them from your emails, pull out your social media content. So you don't start by asking yourself, "What am I going to post on social media leading up to my launch?" You start by asking yourself, "What is the journey I need to take my ideal customer on in the six weeks or four weeks or three weeks before I announce that they can register for my webinar or my video series?" Or whatever your launch content is.

So ask yourself, "What are the whys I need to answer? What's the picture I need to show them of the ideal outcome? How do I give them what content that helps them see other people have used my methodology with success?" And you start by asking, "How do I do that in my long form content? On my podcast? In my blog? On my YouTube videos?" And from there you say, "Right. Now, how do I communicate that in my emails?" And from there you say, "How do I pull this out and put it on social media?" I trust that looking at it from this different angle will help you ask a better question. A better question than, "What do I post on social media leading up to my launch?" Is, "How do I take my most valuable customers," which by the way is your podcast listeners and your email list, "on a journey and reflect that journey on social media?" That is a big one to wrap your head around, but you, my dear listener, can do this.

When we started this episode, I said, "Shock and awe, you don't need social media and you don't need ads." And I stand by that. What you do need is a relationship with your ideal customer and you need to understand how to take that person on a journey to show them that you understand the pain they're in right now and you know the desired end state that they want. You've created the desired end state they want in your life and you have a four, five, six, or seven-step method, roadmap, structure that has gotten other people to where they want to be and it can work for them too. It's literally building a little bridge for them or giving them a map. Picture a map. You've got to show them you know where they're at. You've got to show them you know where they want to go. And then you've got to draw that line, draw the map for them, and say, "Look, through this five steps, this is how I get you there. Here's how I've done it for other people." That's teaching by demonstrating.

I trust that this has been really valuable for you. I cannot wait to hear from you. Send me a DM on Instagram or if you're on my email list, hit reply to the email that came into your inbox with this podcast episode because I want to hear from you. If I just saved you all the pressure from thinking that you don't know what to post on social media, let me know. If this way of thinking about it is going to massively change the way you approach your content from now on, let me know. I want to know that. I want to tell my team because my team gets really excited when you guys give us feedback and say, "Yes, I love that," because it makes their work so rewarding.

All right, that's all I have for you today and I want to remind you that if you're eager to learn how to get your course created and into the hands of many of your best students faster, I am excited to tell you about my mentor and my friend, Amy Porterfield. Amy's been my mentor since 2015 and over the years, she's helped me quit my job, stop hustling for one-on-one clients, and scale my income, creating more freedom for me and allowing me to build wealth for me and my family my way. If you want to hear more about Amy and her program, Digital Course Academy, that'll be opening for enrollment soon and you want to know exactly how me and my team can help you accelerate your launch and make even more profits, then go to shineandsucceed.com/amy and get on the list to hear all about it. Have a fabulous, fantastic week. I'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening. If you had fun, please come back next week and remember to hit that subscribe button, so you never miss a thing.