How to Grow a Twitter Audience With Sam Kelly, Founder of Inspire Network & Twitter Authority
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About The Guest
Sam Kelly is an internationally-recognised Twitter Expert, Social Media Strategist, Author and Speaker. Known as the “Tweeting Goddess”, with a following of over 53k engaged followers, she is also founder of the Women’s Inspire Network — a global support network for female-led businesses, with a social media following of over 16k.
Talking Points
09:26 — Break into consulting.
21:04 — Twitter strategy from the Tweeting Goddess.
25:42 — How to deal with trolls.
34:16 — Why you need to hire a social media manager.
35:44 — What social media channel is the best?
41:33 — How do you build a paid community?
44:50 — How to run a successful livestream?
49:16 — The importance of being ‘social’ on social media.
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What is the Success Story Podcast?
On this podcast, you’ll find interviews, Q&A, keynote presentations & conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups and entrepreneurship.
The podcast is hosted by entrepreneur, business executive, author, educator & speaker, Scott D. Clary.
Scott will discuss some of the lessons he’s learned over his own career, as well as have candid interviews with execs, celebrities, notable figures and politicians. All who have achieved success through both wins and losses, to learn more about their life, their ideas and insights.
He sits down with leaders and mentors and unpacks their story to help pass those lessons onto others through both experiences and tactical strategy for business professionals, entrepreneurs and everyone in between.
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Read The Transcript (Machine Generated)
Sam 02:07
Okay, well, first of all, I never even went to college. I just did normal high school, the COVID over here in Ireland and, and my story kind of starts really about 13 years ago, I decided to stop drinking alcohol, because I’m 13 years sober now. And because I felt like it was holding me back and it was stopping me from reaching my full potential. And I loved it as well, which didn’t help. So I decided I was affecting others around me. So I did that first. And that’s kind of how my my journey into business started. Because when you get rid of one thing that’s holding you back, and it could be a person, it could be Coca Cola, it could be cigarettes, it could be you know, something, whatever it is, it’s holding you back. Once you get rid of that, that’s when you really get a chance to shine and and be the best version of yourself. So that’s where my story started. And then three years later, my father passed away. And I was devastated. And I was kind of going through grief at the time. But then my daughter, ah, she got her first period, which is a real taboo big taboo topic, right. So this is where my journey into business started. So it was like, Oh my god, I felt so sorry for so I went over to the shop at my job to the supermarket. And I said I’ll get her some kind of beginner set or something that’s gonna make this transition a bit easier. I couldn’t believe there were no beginner sets. So right there in the supermarket aisle. I don’t know, maybe it was my dad speaking. I don’t know, I was hitting 14, my marriage had broken up. my other daughter was about to start mainstream school. And my dogs were kind of lined up in a row to do something. But you know, when someone passes away that you love, you kind of start thinking, Oh, my God, life’s too short. And you only live once and you know, and I was kind of looking at my life and thinking, What impact did I made, you know, in my life. And I think that all those things together made me decide, I know, I’ll create this gift box for Welcome to womanhood or whatever. And so right there in the supermarket, I decided I would do. So that’s what I did. And my sister built me a website. And I started using Twitter to market the business. And that’s how my whole journey into Twitter started. And the business is called funky goddess. And I know there’s a version of a show that we have over here called Dragon’s Den, it’s called Shark Tank over there. And so I went on that TV show here in Ireland. And at the time, I had about 5000 followers on Twitter. And when I went on the show I was telling everyone I got me on Dragon’s Den bla bla bla and then when I went on the show and a butterfly landed on the makeup girls, like when she was doing my makeup for the TV show. And she says oh my god, there’s a butterfly here in January and I was like well actually that’s my dad I’d say you know cuz me and dad used to watch it together. used to think oh, that’s a great idea. That’s a great business idea and all this and then so when I went up to the judges on the TV show I kind of the emotions got the better me and I ended up being the girl who cried on Dragon’s Den. So that kind of put me propelled me into the public eye because every Buddy loves the story. They love the fact that this business woman, all of a sudden showed the human side. And it kind of showed me the power of storytelling. And it showed me the power on Twitter of that episode and showing the real sight, you know, the authenticity. And that’s really where my kind of journey in the public I started. So yeah, so that’s where I started. And then I, I sold the business after a year because I didn’t get the investment after the TV show. And my followers on my PR, and everyone wanted to interview me, and I was on TV, and I was on radio and everything. And But still, I wasn’t making a profit, I needed that investment. So I shelved the business, a customer bought it off me. And then a local hotel here said to me, you’re really good at Twitter, could you show us how to do it, we will pay you. And that’s when I realized, if somebody has is willing to pay for something that you can solve for them. If you’ve they’ve a problem, you can solve it. That’s when you have a business. So I decided to change my funky goddess Twitter handle to tweeting goddess and that her tweeting goddess was born.
Scott 06:04
Well, so so just to that was, that was about four, four or five minutes you had made? How many? How many major life events you had. You were you, you went sober. You had a parent, father passed away, go on Dragon’s Den. Tell a story to the world break down on dragons from the world. Yes, start a business, sell a business. And then now pivot into a social media career. So the, the, the, I guess the takeaway is, and Sorry, just what point like what were you doing previous to this? Like, what was the what was the career before you chose to be sober?
Sam 06:52
I, yeah, I traveled a lot. I lived in Paris for two years. I lived in Hong Kong for two years. And I used to actually teach English as a foreign language and I traveled, but also I was always working in customer service or sales. Always all the rules I ever had where I worked in the bank when I was younger, but I always had this thing where I couldn’t settle. You know, I always wanted something else something out, sir. You know, I didn’t like a box. entrepreneurial, but
Scott 07:19
you didn’t you didn’t have that exactly. To push you. And desire jumping back and forth.
Sam 07:24
Exactly. And then when my marriage broke up my second marriage, my my second marriage broke up. I No, no, my second marriage broke up, I kind of it’s like an elastic band that’s pulled. And then I was just like, you know, it was like, it was crazy. I just felt I was ready. I was it was the right time. You know, I was 40. Everything was lined up. And well, my other daughter is, is deaf. She has, she’s hard of hearing, she has two hearing aids. And she was about to start mainstream school as well. So I was caring for her as well. So I was at home, I was at home. And I was I wasn’t working at the time, you know, when I decided to do this. So yeah, but always had great customer service skills. And I wasn’t sales as well. And I was a great salesperson, but I could have got more sales only for that integrity thing. You know, that’s, I always was conscious of doing the right thing. And there’s some sales people that I worked with that weren’t quite like fast. But I used to get the sales anyway, just from being myself, you know. And that’s, that’s something I was always good at.
Scott 08:28
So as you as you dive into this new new career, what are some of the what, how do you find a way to monetize what you do for businesses, because you said you have one hotel that starts to reach out and ask for you to help them with their Twitter. But to to monetize. And to build the brand. It’s not a day one thing, I’m sure that all the steps that you took along your career, obviously helped, and ended up with somebody who could sell and market and tell stories and whatnot. But walk me through maybe that first client and some of the things that you learned and why you decided to continue along the path of and how would you How would you describe yourself? What is the career that you describe yourself as doing now? Is it social media marketing? Is it Twitter consultant? Is it keynote speaker? Is it a client?
Sam 09:26
Yes, I’m a social media consultant, I say, right. So I’ve moved from a first that was managing accounts. So that first account that hotel, I found it very easy. See, it’s just came naturally to me, I said. So what I did was once I got into their account, I started looking at their customers that had already been there. So I started looking at their notifications and their engagement. And I started chatting to marry in Tipperary and say, No, Mary, how’s it going? I started looking at what she was tweeting. And then I commented and she she would go oh my god, the hotel is talking to me. And then she’d go Hi. Yes, I haven’t been down in LA One time, and then she said, Oh, have you any offers at the moment we were do a visit. And then I put the link for the special midweek offer. Bam, she book and then the head office of the hotel chain, actually called the marketing girl in there and said, your clicks to sale have gone up 15% How did you do that? And she said, Well, we hired Samantha. And so she started telling people about me, because she was getting results, it was making her look good, it was making the hotel look good. And that’s all. And that’s when I realized I had a skill that I was able to engage and find customers just by engaging with them on social media. And that’s really where I realized that the power of just engagement and making people feel special. And I did little videos before people were even doing videos, you know, that kind of thing. I was doing little videos and little clips, and, you know, taking pictures of behind the scenes and the team and the human side of it all and that they just did so well. So that’s when I realized, okay, maybe I should start pitching to other businesses. But to be honest, once people started seeing what I was doing, they actually came to me and they said, Look what you just teach us. And then when I teach them, they go, do you know what you just do for me, you know, and so they’d hire me, they pay to be trained, but then they go, Oh, you just tweet for us. So then what happened was, I had so many kinds, I couldn’t handle it on my own. But then sometimes my wanted Facebook, or now there’s Instagram, Instagram didn’t exist when I started. And so then I had to get a team around me. So I started approaching people that I knew all of my team I got from Twitter, by the way, I was watching them, how they respond to people how they are the stuff that we’re putting out the content. And so I outsource to people who are better at the other stuff that I’m not good at. And so now I have a team. So now I’m more about the strategy. And then I support the team around me. And I don’t manage accounts anymore. But my team do, you know if someone does need, and I found that I was very feeling very isolated, working from online in particular, because especially here in this little village where I live, they didn’t really understand Twitter, they didn’t understand what I was doing. They, you know, a lot of businesses still don’t, you know, have an online presence. So I found that my customers were actually outside of Ireland, were actually all over the world because it didn’t matter where they were because it was online. And I knew that if I could reach other women like me that I wouldn’t be on my own. And so I created the women’s inspire network, which was just for for me to not feel as lonely. And I created a hashtag on Twitter. And it was very successful. And it was so successful. People said, Oh, can we have a Facebook group and got that grew to 1000. And I was exhausted, I was exhausted doing all this good stuff for everybody else. And then I went Hang on a second, Samantha, you need to start thinking like a business woman. And I decided, you know what, if I charge a small fee of like 20 a month, people would be willing to pay that if they knew they were going to get value, and they were going to learn and they were going to get opportunities. So that’s why I started the women’s inspire network. And now we’ve members all over the world, we 470 members from all over the world. And the pandemic certainly, you know, helped a lot because people needed that human connection. But it’s all about stuff I’ve learned along the way. For anyone listening is thinking of starting a business. It’s all about relationships, it’s all about people, people buy from people. And that’s the secret and how you make people feel. You know, if you didn’t like me, I wouldn’t be sitting on this podcast right now. You know, people work with people they know like and trust. I want to interview someone if I think they’re a bitch, like, you know, I need to be with people who are going to give value and they’re going to give value to my audience because my audience if you notice my Twitter profile, it says nice people collector, because I don’t want Yeah, I don’t want and what does it do? It attracts nice people, like the trolls and the negative people. We just see that Goku she’s too fluffy for me. I’m not gonna follow her. You know? So it’s, I just it’s the psychology behind it all. There’s a whole psychology behind Twitter. So yeah, so that’s really where, where the journey has gone. And now I 60,000 followers on Twitter, and the women’s inspire network is growing every day. So it’s been amazing.
Scott 14:17
There’s so many so many things that I want to go into. So let’s see. We got community building, we got no brand perception, we got you know, scaling an agency, we got different types of social content. So there’s, uh, you just touched on like five or six different things that…
Sam 14:33
We’ve tried to trying to fit it all into 280 characters each point.
Scott 14:38
Yeah, yeah. Right. Now this is this is long form. This is no, it’s very good. Um, so I guess we’ll let’s let’s go into a few of these things. And I’m just trying to, I’m trying to align the topics with how your personal journey progressed. So I’m going to go back to to you scaling out the agency. So, I think that that’s important because a lot of entrepreneurs and people trying to start side hustles are our audience start? You know, that’s our audience. So what are some of the steps that you took, you said you outsource, but let’s talk about, you know, early learnings in perhaps outsourcing and finding talent that would fulfill the requirements of the customer properly. And then I also want to talk about building out a recurring revenue or Predictable Revenue model what you did with your community. So give me some insight on on how to build out basically a service based business that isn’t so easily, easily scalable, they want?
Sam 15:39
Yeah, well, what I did was I just made sure that I knew my stuff. So learn, learn, learn, there’s so many courses out there, get a coach, if you if you have the budget for a coach, get a coach, but get a good coach, get someone that’s aligned with what you’re doing, or someone who’s done it already. You know, for example, now I coach people one to one and I show them how to raise their profile how to get to the right people. And you know, there’s a lot of learning, but you know, it’s about expand your network, first, get the right people around you, the team I hand picked, because I was watching them already, I saw how good they were. And then, you know, get, get a really good communication thing going, you know, either Facebook Messenger, or you know that you’re all in connect in contact, and you’re all helping each other because one of the, one of the girls might feel unwell. And then one of your team members will jump in and take over that account. But you have to have the right person for each account. Like we have bad, for example, who was great at the more serious accounts. And then we have Sharon, who is great at the kind of, you know, outgoing accounts, and you know, you have different personalities to suit each kind, like I wouldn’t put certain people in front of certain accounts. And but also, you know, the client has to know, you know, well actually is not going to be re running the camera is going to be Ben or Sharon or Anya, you know, so it’s about transparency as well. But if they want me, they’d have to pay triple the amount. So you know, usually they’re happy enough once I’m guiding them. And they’re getting results. So it’s all about making sure the client understands what they’re going to get setting realistic expectations. But looking after them, you know, I’m giving that little bit extra, I always give extra. So like, for example, I have a client, she’s a music school, Sonia and she has a music school. And it was in a Terran year in Dublin. I don’t live in Dublin, but it’s a great music school. But what we did was before, before the pandemic, I’d already trained her, and I was already working with her. So then when the pandemic hit, she pivoted all her lessons online. And now she has my daughter doing violin lessons, because she can do it online. You know. And so now she has a global global students, not just in Dublin, and this kind of thing is really important. So So I helped, you know, with other opportunities, like giving her a speaking moment at my conference, you know, that kind of thing. So I look after my clients always look after them, like surprise and delight your customers. That’s what I always say, surprise and delight. If someone joins my women’s inspire network, I send them a bond euro if anyone wants to write that down Bonjour. Oh, it’s an app for you. I
Scott 18:15
love it. Oh, he’s one I had, I had their head of growth on my podcast, I love it.
Sam 18:21
I love it too. It’s just so powerful. Because if someone signs up to the Women’s Network, I send them a message straightaway. And one time I had the towel around my head, I just come out and had it had washed my hair. And I sent it a bunch zero. And, and the girl started laughing and saying, Jesus, you know, that’s so funny. I feel so a part of this network already, you know, it was real, you know, and, and so, yeah, so the biggest tip I can give is like, you know, surround yourself with good people who are better at the stuff you’re not good at, and look after them. And make sure your clients are looked after, and they will stay with you. But also not only that, they will send you business. And if you look after your followers in your audience on Twitter, they will they’ll do your marketing for you. They will tag you, they will recommend you. They love people to do well. Like people have a lot of negativity and fear and Twitter. But people on Twitter actually the demographic would be aged 35 to 55 and the highest growing demographic at over 55. So they’ve been there done that they’ve probably been through some kind of divorce or tragedy or illness or house move or something. And they want to hang out with good people and they want to help the small business owner if they can, you know so a lot of people don’t know that about Twitter, but that that’s there’s just so much I mean, I’m very proud of where I am now, but it took a lot of hard work. So another tip I’ll give is Oh my god, keep at it. You know, surround yourself with good people, like have good people around you that you can bounce ideas off. Forget about the haters. The naysayers, I was told to get off my high horse. I was told Who does she think she is and you know, I hurt But you know what I kept going, and I was determined. So you do have to have that resilience and not give up. If you really, if you’re getting sales, if you’re not getting sales, you don’t have a business. And unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. If you are not getting money in the door, you don’t have a business. And that’s why when I had funky goddess, I wasn’t we had no coal. The fire was lightning, and I was sitting around the fire and my two daughters, I mean, no coal with no money for coal. And I said, right, that’s it. You know, this is not worth it, what I’m doing to my family. So I shelved funky goddess, as it happened, a customer bought it off me. But I had to face reality that it wasn’t bringing in money and keep on keeping me going, you know, I needed to make a profit. So be really, really careful. If you do have a business idea, get a mentor, get advice from the right people and just say, look, if it’s going to work, if you start getting sales, if you have something that solves a problem for someone, and that people are willing to pay for you have a business.
Scott 21:04
And let’s let’s talk about now. So that’s how that’s how you build out your business. Now let’s talk about some of the some of the things that you try and do through your clients accounts to help them build business sales through Twitter, because I feel like most people just missed the mark on Twitter, it seems to be almost like thing that businesses feel they have to have. But my goodness, if you ever see if you see the average business Twitter account, it’s like what you know, I know why they’re bothering, but also it’s like, why are you bothering because it’s just horrible. It’s just it’s not really anything net positive.
Sam 23:27
Mee, mee mee mee and it’s not about that at all. And sometimes I see, you know, big accounts like a big business. And they’ve got like 100,000 followers and they’re following 500. That’s the worst. And it looks so snobby. And especially, you know, one like where, you know, if you follow back someone if you follow someone back that’s following you. Like it’s kind of courtesy, but also it’s like if they’re normal, I’m not talking about weirdos or anything, you don’t have to follow them. But like, you know, if you’re following someone that’s, that’s a genuine person, you’re going to make their day, and it’s going to make them feel special. So I always follow back people who I think will add value to my feed. So don’t forget, it’s not about me at all. It’s about my audience. And I go when I make Twitter lists, and so you can keep an eye on the people who might be potential clients or potential customers. I also helped them and add value. So what I do is, for example, a Christmas time, I created an Irish Gift Ideas Twitter list. So to kind of help the businesses that had suffered through the pandemic, I did an Irish Gift Ideas Twitter list, and people started buying from that list. So I asked anyone that had a business to let me know and I would add them to the list. So had like King 700 on the list or not, I think only had 250 on the list. But then seven hundreds followed my list. So a lot of people actually messaged me, sent me letters sent me flowers, and said they got loads of sale from the sales from the fact that I made that Twitter list. So what I was doing was I was helping the people who were selling. I was also helping solve a problem for people. on what to buy, especially if their family were abroad, and they couldn’t see them at Christmas, they wanted to send them something Irish. And then I also added value to my audience, because they knew that that list was there, they could just click on the list and see, and it helped them do their shopping for Christmas. So just it’s about adding value and helping your audience like, I get many businesses saying, you know, oh, you know, we want to do a webinar, and it’s a panel discussion, blah, blah. I’m like, Oh, God, would you not just do what do your customers need right now? Well, they need more sales. Okay, why Could you do a webinar on how to get more sales, that would be more useful and more valuable? So it’s about thinking about the customer all the time, and what they need? I hope that answers your question.
Scott 25:45
It does. No, I think it’s very smart. And, and I guess the follow up or the the other point, when, when businesses put themselves out there, and they start to build a profile, they’re probably concerned with falling outside of the box or doing things that are a little bit differently. Like, when I look at the average business account, again, it’s just it’s very boring. But then I look at something like, I’m just using one reference point, like a morning brew, which is all you know, it’s a news, it’s a news outlet, that’s very off the off the wall when it comes to their Twitter account. And that’s actually probably how they built a lot of their followers. But brands are always concerned about, if I put myself out there. I’m going to get some negativity, I’m going to get some, like you said, some, you know, some trolls or whatnot. So how do you deal with with that? Is that just in your own head? You have to get over it? Or are there actual strategies that you have to deal with? When you start to get some, you know, colorful comments.
Sam 26:41
Well, you won’t really start getting those to go over like 5000 followers or so. Right? And if you do, just lucky. Okay, if you get a customer complaint, that’s a different story. Okay. So let’s say you get a complaint. I had a coffee shop, and I was running their Twitter account. And this lady said, I was in there yesterday, and the waitress was Wigan, and you know, why she didn’t my coffee was cold, or whatever she said, right? So I said, right. Okay. Hi. So the first thing you do is you engage, you engage us and are really set. We’re really sorry to hear that you had this experience? Could we please dm you and get more details and investigate? So you take it offline. So even if she doesn’t go to dm, you’ve shown the public that you’re dealing with the issue. So you’ve shown the public that you’ve tried to deal with the issue, which, which looks good, right? And then if they do go offline, what you do is you follow up, so you say right? Give us your number, give us your email, or whatever. And then you get the person in charge the decision maker to contact that person and find out what happened. What we did was, we found out what happened, we sent the lady a gift voucher to come back in and have lunch, she came in and had lunch. And guess what she did a lovely tweet saying thank you so much for the gorgeous looks, she became a brand advocate, because we helped her and we dealt with the issue. So that’s the only thing about like, people hear about these big stories, big mistakes, get the right person running your Twitter account, or get them trained properly. And that will never ever happen. So it’s having social media strategy, having a policy as well like so that if such and such happens, this is what we do. You don’t have it all in place so that they know what to do. But the worst Twitter accounts I’ve seen have been bigger companies that that think they know their audience, but they actually don’t, and they just don’t engage. They don’t say thank you to simple things like if someone like I mentioned a brand a few times because I liked that brand. And I used to mention the brand, because I’d be sitting there at my cup of tea, and I mentioned the brand. And they never even thanked me for mentioning them, which was a huge missed opportunity. Because if they had retweeted me, or if they had engaged with me, I would have actually retweeted that, to make them look good. You know, because I’d be impressed by that. So any, I also always give kudos when I get great customer service. And I never complain, I never get involved in controversy. I stay away from all of that. And I just keep it positive, add value, share my knowledge and help others. And I help others by retweet them. It’s not about me, my audience would like to see other people as well, you know, and usually my audience wants to support businesses. So I did actually have a great story from last week. Um, this lady rang me She’s a member of my women’s inspire network, and she had ordered 500 lots and lots and lots of this vegan chocolate covered peanuts, right? Because she does vegan chocolate. And she rang me she was quite upset. She said, I don’t know what to do. That customer has canceled the order and I’ve got it already ordered. I don’t know what to do. How do I get rid of this much chocolate and I said, Wait, wait, don’t panic. I said, let’s do a tweet. So we did a tweet. And the tweet said Hang on. I’ll find it now for you. While I’m talking to you. The tweet said I have this amount of chocolate Can you if anyone is interested or whatever it was. We told the story Basically, in the tweet, and I helped her compose the tweets, and oh my gosh, it went viral, because people said, Oh my god, let’s help this small business that and they all bought chocolates, everybody, she got 100 orders, she got to three new stockists. And you know, she just was inundated with help from Twitter. And one guy just bought a box of them and she got she got the chocolate all she didn’t lose any money. Isn’t that just lovely, lovely story. And that’s the kind of thing I do. So we just did, we just did a tweet. And I supported her. I said, Come on, guys, let’s support this small business. So we got behind her and everybody went and bought chocolate covered freakin chocolate covered peanuts. So it’s just a nice little story. But for everybody pear box, it only cost like 10 euros, you know. So you know, just a little bit.
Scott 30:51
It’s easy when you get when you get a crowd involved to like, the crowdsource, you know, to crowdsource the brand, especially as small businesses can make a huge difference. Yeah, but, you know, one thing that I think always happens, and I don’t really know why still in 2021 is that brands don’t place the value on the person, or the person who runs their social media. I feel like it’s, I don’t know why that is like an extra priority. Yeah, it’s Oh, you know, your your marketing, and then tweet once in a while, you know, like someone posts on Instagram or…
Sam 34:16
Yeah, there should be someone who is assigned this role and a plan and a strategy or if you don’t want to then outsource it to someone like me or someone else who does that. Like you know I don’t understand that they don’t make it a priority and it’s so important because I remember seeing I remember I put a tweet up saying Okay ladies best tinted moisturizer, like it was just like for fun. And I put it up and I got all these responses about the best tinted moisturizer which by the way for the guys listening it’s like makeup like makeup right for the summer. And and so I got so many responses. I was like where are all the brands, not one brand hopped into that conversation and said hey ceman Samantha we have a tinted moisturizer. It’s really good. Here it is. There’s by now click to buy not one brand. Did that And that was such a missed opportunity because the did tweet went crazy. We had about 200 responses. So that was 200 potential sales.
Scott 35:09
You know, and 200 responses on Twitter is like 1000s of impressions. Yeah, like 1000s of people saw that. Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Sam 35:17
Where’s it branded top? said, you know, Oh, hi, son. I’m actually we have but look, we’d love to send you one to try. And if anyone else wants to try, here’s the discount code, you know? Yeah. That’s what I would do.
Scott 35:29
Now, okay, so that now Now let’s, let’s, let’s dive into to why Twitter versus Facebook, Instagram, Tik, Tok, Snapchat, YouTube. So why Twitter? What? what’s the what’s the opportunity for Twitter versus everything else?
Sam 35:44
Well, the demographic on Twitter are CEOs and decision makers and small business owners. So they are my audience. Now, it might not work for everybody. So if you are, you know, trying to get to a younger demographic, maybe you need to be on Tick tock, you know, so you need to find who your customer is, and understand who your customers are, and understand your audience before you even choose which platform. Now if you’re really really brilliant on Instagram, but your customers are on Twitter, or LinkedIn, you know, you need to kind of, you know, you’re going to have to decide what you’re going to do. You could have the tick tock or whatever it is for your fun side. And then just for business, you need to be where your audience are. And so it’s about getting to know your audience. It’s also you know, a lot of people say, Oh, I’m going to hire an influencer on Instagram. I’m an influencer on Twitter. But people seem to not think of an influencer, being on another platform. There are LinkedIn influencers, you know, there are different influencers and different platforms. So it’s really about deciding where your customers are. Twitter is where my that’s where my audience are. I’m on Instagram, I’m on tik tok. Actually, I there, but that’s more for fun. But I do mix a little bit of Instagram, because co posts a lot of your Instagram, your Instagram is connected to your co pays. And I use co pays, and Twitter spaces social audio a lot, which is something people should look into. If they’re an expert in their niche, definitely go onto clubhouse or Twitter spaces. So there’s just so many it’s about finding where your audience are, and where are you getting the results from? If you’re on Instagram, and you’re getting lots of sales, then yes, stay there, you know, but could you be missing out on other sales, and another audience on Twitter, people on Twitter are professional, urban, they have more disposable income, they’re more likely to click Buy now. And that’s what I’ve noticed. And I just I just love the Twitter community, it’s a community, you only hear the bad stuff in the media about Twitter, you don’t hear the beautiful stories like about the chocolate covered peanuts, like about the self isolation health hashtag that I started in. During the pandemic, I started a little movement where, well, I just started, I just did a tweet saying self isolation if you wanted to connect with other people self isolating, and then I started a whole movement called hashtag self isolation help and that went global. And I ended up on the news that night and the RT news crew came into my office here. And that night, because people just embraced it, they wanted to help in some ways, the only way they knew how to help was to actually, you know, if someone needed delivery, or someone needed the dogs walked, or something like that, or a pharmacy prescription picked up, they were able to do something so people felt so helpless during the pandemic. So if you can bring hope on Twitter, you’ll be a hit.
Scott 38:24
A lot of a lot of the success that you’ve had as has been based on your ability to build a community, it could be with a hashtag, it could be with thrive. So let’s talk about let’s talk about thrive network. Let’s talk about the Wi Fi or network. Are you building alright thrive? networks Yeah, that’s Sorry, I’m you know what I was thinking I was thinking of airy and I know this for everybody listening. It’s it’s now 7:50am in the morning when we’re recording this and and that was dry strike. So that we can get it without you Without Sam having to stay up late because she’s overseas and anyway, so I haven’t really had a coffee yet. That’s so I’m so sorry. So okay, I like that sounds like a great anyway, women’s inspire network not thrive anyway. You see women see wi n when wi n Okay, that’s all we had known that acronym ahead of time. I thought about that. I wouldn’t have screwed it up.
Sam 39:28
It’s okay. The winners stick with the Windows is fine. You know what? And this is another thing as well, you’re allowed to make mistakes, right? Look, stop being so serious, everybody. Oh my God, this pandemic of anti thing has told us has taught us like the importance of family and life. And there’s so many people who’ve suffered to this. So you know, we need to have a bit of fun, a bit of joy in our lives. And if you’re not having fun, run your business. Stop doing this because it’ll just kill you. I’ve seen as I see my dad work really, really, really hard. And you know, you know, it’s so important to have joy in your life and, and hang out with good people forget about the one that drains you or that person who drains you. And it’s all about them. And every time you visit them, or you hear from them, you’re just exhausted afterwards, get those people out your life, they won’t even notice they’ll go move on to someone else. And it’s something I always say, and but yet, don’t be worried about things like that. And I just think it’s funny, you know, and, you know, we need to laugh at our mistakes as well. And I did loads, I made loads of mistakes. Okay. So, you know, the women’s inspire network, like one of the mistakes I made, as I said, was I had this Facebook group, but 1000 members, but it was just all and then it turned into kind of spammy. And I said, Okay, there has to be a better way to do this. So what I did was I made it more structured, we do weekly webinars on topics that they need, we have a Facebook group that’s really engaged. So people can come in and say, Look, you know, what, I actually don’t know how to do a Facebook Messenger bot, for example, or how do you set up a Facebook ad? Or can anyone help me and all those little things. So we’re helping each other all the time. And then we celebrate the wins, somebody got featured in the magazine, or someone got featured their podcast reached 25,000 listeners and things like that, you know, we’re able to celebrate the winds and the lows as well. And that’s a journey. So it’s not just about business, a lot of women actually have joined who were actually in jobs for companies, but they’re just a lot of guys working there. So they like to kind of have that kind of touch. But they’re thinking maybe of starting a business later. So, you know,
Scott 41:33
what are the mechanics of doing that? I’ve actually building out a paid membership community. How did you set that up?
Sam 41:41
Well, I just said with the 8000 members I already had, and then my followers on Twitter, I just said, Look, if you want more value, and you want to get the weekly webinars, the PR opportunities, all of that is 20 a month, there you go. And I just sent the link for them to join, and it’s a monthly payment thing. So it’s like my web lady, my web person did it. You know, so that set up the click, and it automatically comes out every month.
Scott 42:05
That’s it, then did you have trouble getting people who were consuming all the free content to convert? Because that’s actually I’m just asking you now selfishly for me, because that’s something that I’m trying to figure out. And that’s something that I’m always concerned, like, I’m always putting free stuff into the world. But
Sam 42:21
yeah, how do I buy? Okay, well, I did was a post, I did a post, I said, Look, guys, you know, thank you so much for your support in this group, I decided to create a paid membership, I’m going to close this group at the end of the month. But in the meantime, if you want to join the paid one, we’re opening a new Facebook group over there. So they felt like to be missing out. They didn’t go to the new group. But also, it weeded out the ones that like they were like, oh, not paying, why should I pay? I’m like, Okay, thank you, no problem, go to a different network, that’s fine. But you know what I mean, the ones that did understand the value they were going to get, and already had that really engaged and wanted to learn more, and what I knew they would get value and knew me, the people who knew me knew that I would make it work, really. So you do have to build that know, like and trust factor. So people know like and trust you they will buy from you is so important to know it’s a cliche, we hear it all the time, but it’s so important. If they didn’t like me, and they didn’t trust that I was going to give value, they wouldn’t have joined.
Scott 43:18
And now you’re running, you’re running webinars on there, you’re running events on there, you run live streams as well,
Sam 43:23
as we do. I’ve actually got an interview tonight, which to my clients. And there are a couple they live in Spain. And they have a beauty, beard oil, actually, they do a product of beard oil and softens kind of high end. And so I’m interviewing them tonight and going live with their Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, all the same time, I’m using Restream. So do that as well. Yeah.
Scott 43:46
And then how do you? So last question on that? Because I saw, and I’m asking this, I love these because I get to learn from before. So when all these all these things that you figured out, they make a lot of sense. The one thing that I also I personally haven’t figured out. So I know that other people are still trying to start are still struggling with this. Yeah, when you run a live stream, I find that when you run a live stream, or even when I find when you run social audio, you go into clubhouse, I find that very small percentage of your audience convert in real time. For the first time I’ve ever done, I’ve tried to do live streams before and whatnot. So what are some, what are some tips that you may have for somebody who’s trying to do a live stream because I see the value in that. But to get it so that more of your audience joins, perhaps you get the event to trend somehow? Do you have any, any best practices for a live stream or for an event that’s too like an event if you’re actually a student and let’s say for an event, let’s say for an event.
Sam 44:50
So social media Bootcamp, we did there in May and we charge 30 euros a ticket, we had 160 people came and it was just two hours long. So we did Tick Tock LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, you know, we just covered the basics Beginner’s Guide to social media. And it was so cool, we trended because people were putting comments up, they were watching the thing, they were using the hashtag. And so what I did was I just told them a value they were gonna get, if they think they’re going to get value, they’re gonna learn something, they’ll pay for it. Because one girl went, Oh, my God, tick tock, brilliant, I’m gonna buy that ticket now, you know, but they always trust me anyway, anytime I run events, they know they’re gonna get value. So it is about building up that trust factor and, and delivering and given them a brilliant event to talk about, like the first conference we did. Like, I remember, I had some, like one or two kind of star speakers, but really, they loved the normal member who I gave an opportunity to, to be on the stage. So I give one, one or two members an opportunity to get on the stage. And that would probably wouldn’t get before. And then they get more speaking moments after that, because someone in the audience saw them and said, you know, I’d love you to speak at our chamber event or our event next week. And so what I do is I give them opportunities, but I make sure the topics are relevant. So I used to go to so many events, and I get a babysitter, and I stay in a hotel and I drive up and I’d leave the event gone. Do you know what? That was all about them? I didn’t get any value out of that. Whereas if I know what issues people are having, like I lost them before this next event in October, we have our annual conference. I’m going to do it online again this year, just because people are still a bit afraid, you know? And I will ask them, what topics would you like us to cover in the conference, and I’m going to have a team of let’s get back to let’s get back to business or let’s let’s rock and get ready for 2022 or whatever. You know, I put the team around what people are going through at the moment. So that’s what I do. So if you have a topic that’s relevant people will buy if they think they’re getting value, put a call to action, always in your tweet. And if you are talking about the event, put a call to action in your live stream. So say, look, if you want to connect to us, Scott, and you want to be a guest on his podcast, here’s his link and drop it into the live stream. Another thing you can do is you could actually say, look, Scott has a webinar coming up next week, if you’d like to come to the webinar, here’s the link, do your free webinars Scott. And most of the time when people do webinars for my network, the conversion rates, like let’s say 10, save 10 only turned up three of those would book for her for her workshop or her masterclass. So the conversion rate is really, really good from free webinars. So I always suggest people start doing their videos doing the free stuff like you’re doing now. And now you’re ready to go to the next level. So add value, what do people need right now? What’s going to make them sign up, make it make us compelling? And like a no brainer, or that they’re going to miss out on something?
Scott 47:46
Hope that helps. Very, very smart. Yeah, no, it definitely helps. And and you have and I guess the distance to finish off that thought? Because, yes, that would be incredible advice for for webinars. And then do you have any additional advice for live streams, because live streams are a little bit of a different beast.
Sam 48:05
Always just put the Twitter handle of the person underneath so that it makes it easy for them to connect with them. And and just give value because
Scott 48:14
you use restream as well for them.
Sam 48:15
Yeah. And then what I do is I go back and I reply, and I get the guests to reply to all the people who commented. So go back to the comments, and say thank you so much for joining us out. Thanks for thinking that and thanks for your kind words. Just engage with them, connect with them on LinkedIn, then connect with them on Twitter, follow each other and start building build a Twitter list of livestream audience.
Scott 48:37
It seems like such common sense but times that people don’t they just don’t do it. I know right? Just to engage.
Sam 48:44
Look, I had a 51 birthday in lockdown, right at a fit Sorry for interrupting the 50th birthday in lockdown. And I just put a picture of me with a balloon in the kitchen for my 50th birthday because I couldn’t have a party, right? And then the amount of people that wish me happy birthday, as you can imagine, right? I went back to every single if you go and look at that tweet later, you will see I went back and I typed every single person who wished me happy birthday. There were a lot of them. But I did it. Because I just felt so important to acknowledge them.
Scott 49:16
And I think that that’s a really good point that social media is not just this megaphone that you have that you use to talk to the world. It’s it’s you can use it talk to the world, but then you go you go into the comments, you go and respond, you go engage. And that’s that’s where the true relationships are built. That that is where the true relationships are built.
Sam 49:36
Absolutely. And it’s like they don’t know they have and I think it’s like walking into a room and ignoring something like someone says hello and you just ignore them. You know, that’s really what it is. And and one girl actually said to me, I was in clubhouse to the Twitter room, and she actually did a tweet. I’ve actually bookmarked the tweets, she said after seven years on Twitter, 15 minutes for tweeting goddess and I know a hell of a lot more than I ever knew before, you know what I mean? And it’s just like, like, a lot of people don’t understand Twitter, and they don’t have a lot of fear around it. But that’s why I’m very lucky. I chose this niche, and I didn’t I think the niche chose me really, you know, I didn’t actually just kind of happened. So I’m very lucky and blessed.
Scott 50:18
Incredible. Okay, so I want to I want to finish up with some rapid fire questions. But before we pivot, was there anything any other points with inspire? Or with the work that you’re doing? Or any other lessons that you wanted to go into? Or do we cover a lot,
Sam 50:33
I think the main thing is, you know, decide what it is you want to be an expert in and become that expert, show people you are the go to person, surround yourself with good people join my women’s inspire network, you know, there are good people there. And if you don’t even join mine, join a different one. But make sure you’re surround yourself with good people. If someone’s bitching about someone, they’re probably going to be bitching about someone else tomorrow or you. So I always stay away from people like that. So, you know, surround yourself, start by following myself and Scott, you know, follow us on Twitter, engage with us, tell us you listen to the podcast, we’d love to hear that you listen to the podcast, and we’d love to see your tweet. And so I will retweet your tweet if you tweet to me. So just start by helping others and support them, and they’ll support you back. And just be yourself. You don’t have to. Look, I just be myself. And you know, I’m not your normal business woman either. And, you know, when I do walk into a room, I do get noticed. And my husband was laughing, you know, because people come up and they say hello to him because he’s my husband. Just because I put pictures of him on Twitter. Do y’all know him? It’s so funny. And he hates the limelight. But just be yourself and and treat everybody with respect and everybody the same. And you just never know who you’re speaking to.
Scott 51:49
Very, very, very good advice. And especially, especially just because actually, I was thinking about this the other day, but everything you put online, and that’s another just an aside, everything you put online is there forever. And that’s something that people I think, may not think through sometimes
Sam 52:07
having a rant or something and they’d be bitching about me like and I just I can sick people send them to me, they send me the screenshots. And don’t just you just never know who’s watching keep doing the right thing. Keep being the best at what you do. Ignore the copycats just keep being the best. And you know, there’s just so many good people out there just most people are good, and they’re kind and you know, just stick with them.
Scott 52:33
I want to I want to capture all the socials website. Where should people go to connect with you on Twitter on other social your personal website just so that it’s it’s on the show?
Sam 52:45
Yeah, tweeting goddess calm tweeting, Goddess calm and I’m tweeting goddess more or less everywhere. Snapchat, Instagram, Tik. Tok everywhere.
Scott 52:54
It’s easy. Okay.
Sam 52:56
Another little tip, actually keep your branding all the same as well. Yeah.
Scott 53:00
Yeah. Okay. Biggest challenge that you’ve overcome in your own career and your own personal life? It could be professional can be personal, if you mentioned a few. But what’s one that stood out? And how did you overcome it?
Sam 53:13
And getting sober. So 13 years sober, and, and the biggest? Thank you. But the biggest tip is, you know, go to meetings, do the right things. Do what’s suggested. biggest tip in business? Don’t ever take criticism from someone you would never go to for advice. It’s very smart. Yeah, that’s Morgan Freeman. It’s not my quote, but I love it. It’s so good advice. From a movie, I don’t know. I said, quote, I found it. I found Morgan Freeman just popped up. And I just loved it so much. It’s so true. Why would you take criticism? Someone you’d never go to for advice? Like,
Scott 53:55
you know, no, very good. If you had to choose one person who was incredibly influential or impactful on your life, who was that person? And what did they teach?
Sam 54:07
My dad. He taught me the value of hard work and kindness. He used to help a lot of people like a lot of young men who were going down the wrong path. He’d say, Oh, I need a hand build in this shed or I need a handle on this. And he’d kind of take them under his wing, and he’d have them working with him for the day. And then he’d bring them fishing and you know, try and help them and find out what’s going on for them. Yeah.
Scott 54:32
What would be a podcast or a book that you’d recommend people go check out?
Sam 54:39
Oh, sorry. Yeah. Well, there’s my book. Little Book of Twitter magic, I know. And one book on podcast. Actually, one or the other. Scott’s podcast is the best one. I suppose there are lots of books. There’s so many business books, but there’s no one that really kind of, I’m not a great book reader. The best book I have is the the AA book. I’m afraid that’s my my Bible.
Scott 55:15
That’s very good. That’s fine. That’s that’s completely fine. If you could tell your 20 year old self one thing what would it be?
Sam 55:24
Stop drinking. Let me see that’s it. Yeah, yeah, I suppose there are you are good enough. You are good enough.
Scott 55:38
And what does success mean to you?
Sam 55:40
Success means not worrying when the doorbell rings or when the bill comes in the door that I’m able to pace and that my family are happy and my girls are content.
