“The thing is, people who make it big on social media are the exception, not the rule,” says Erin. “The other thing is, success is almost always delayed. We watch someone’s highlight reel or see them at the end of a winning sports season and we have no idea what kind of effort those individuals put in before they made it big. It’s the same as if you move to a new town and go to a community networking event. You can’t expect to hit two meetings and find 50 new best friends. Life doesn’t work like that.” “The thing is, people who make it big on social media are the exception, not the rule.” If you bought into the hype, you would think that social media is a pipeline to unlimited customers and new business builders. But most often, social media is simply an excellent supplement to in-person business-building practices. Keep it real. Erin Clark doesn’t think of herself as a social media expert—but she is an expert at being authentic. “I’ve been on social media platforms for a long time,” she says, “but I don’t have an insane amount of followers and I don’t prioritize Facebook or Instagram over my face-to-face interactions.” Erin prefers to use social media to deepen her relationships with people in her community and expand her reach to like-minded individuals beyond her immediate circle. “I’ve been less active on social media in the last year than I have been in seven years,” she says. “I don’t always love living my life publicly. It’s exhausting! Everyone thinks they want to have tons of followers until someone leaves a nasty comment calling them ugly or stupid.”
When posting on social media, the best way to expand your reach is to be your authentic self. Does it feel good to you to post every day? Great! But if that gets to be too much, there is nothing wrong with posting less often. According to Erin, what is important is posting about topics that represent who you are as a person and staying consistent. “I’ve found the tactics in a book called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk to be especially insightful,” she says. “Basically, Gary explains that the bulk of content you put on social media should have nothing to do with your business, which in our case is Melaleuca. It’s social media. Be social! Building trust, providing value, and occasionally letting people see into your world is key. These are the ‘jabs’—you do that well, and then the ‘right hook’ is posting about parts of what you love about Melaleuca. This way, your followers never feel like they’re being sold to.” Talk to the experts. In 2021, Erin broke her leg. Bored and depressed (and unable to build her business outside of her house as she usually did), Erin hired a consultancy firm that specialized in social media. “I’d been online for over 15 years but felt like I was a hot mess and needed help,” she shares. “What the experts taught me is to go on social media and post as if I’m talking to my ideal audience.” Interestingly, the same principle applies to writing a bestselling book. “I’ve often heard that the most accoladed stories are written to one person and not the masses,” Erin says. “If I learned anything from spending thousands of dollars on social media coaching, it was that I needed to discover who I am looking to connect with and simply talk to that specialized ‘ideal’ audence.”
To find her ideal audience, Erin had to remember who she was before she found Melaleuca.
42 MARCH 2024 | MELALEUCA.COM/LIA
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