It's the 2 year anniversary of The Writing and Marketing Show, so I wanted to bring you something special. Today I am talking with Jason Smith of Social Shapes about Developing Your Online Presence. With billions of users using the internet every day this is not something you can afford to ignore.
You can find Jason via his website - http://www.socialshapes.com/
It's the 2 year anniversary of The Writing and Marketing Show, so I wanted to bring you something special. Today I am talking with Jason Smith of Social Shapes about Developing Your Online Presence. With billions of users using the internet every day this is not something you can afford to ignore.
You can find Jason via his website - http://www.socialshapes.com/
Hi, and welcome to the writing and marketing show brought to you by author Wendy H. Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. it's jam packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast. So it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to episode 104 of the writing and Marketing Show. Brought to you by author entrepreneur, Wendy Jones. Yes, it's a magical two year birthday of the writing and marketing show. And I have to say, when I started it, two years ago, and I didn't think I'd still be going two years later, because we had just started with COVID. And nobody knew what the future was going to bring. And I have to say, two years later, I'm thrilled that I'm still here. I'm still I'm not thrilled that we're still in the middle of a global pandemic. But that's the way things are. And we've went to live with it over the last two years. But one thing I have been able to do is continue to bring you the podcast week after week. And I've enjoyed doing it. And today I've got an interview with Jason Smith, who runs a company which helps people to develop an online presence. And it's a fantastic episode today. I'm sure you will love it. And so we will hear from Jason in a moment. But before then what's been happening in my life? Well, I'm gearing up for my trip to Antigua in at the end of April, beginning of May. I've been doing prep, I've been getting ready for it. I've been reading various books, historical books that will help me and with the research, and it's been a thrilling ride. And that's all about 19th century naval history. Now it sounds really boring, but it's not. It's absolutely fascinating. What else have I been doing? Well, I've been developing my tic tock presence. And I've had a tick tock account for about a year I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. But over the last five days, I've done a little free challenge. And I've managed to grow my grow my followers, I've managed to put four videos out and I'm loving it. And I'm following others and I'm commenting, and I've really enjoyed doing it. So if you're on Tik Tok, then I am at Wendy H. Jones author, and you can follow me there and I will follow you back. And it's a really good platform. If you're not on it, I'm going to do a show on it in the future, I'll see if I can get someone on the show to talk about tick tock for authors. And because it really is a worthwhile platform. It's really just clicked with me in the last five days. And I'm really pleased about that. And I enjoy bringing you this show every week. And for the past two years, I've loved it. But it does take time out of my writing. If you would like to support this time, you can do so by going to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones and support me for as little as $3 a month. And that would mean that you enjoy the show, and that you would like it to continue. And I would be very grateful. If you don't want to do it on an ongoing basis, you can just go to my website when h jones.com. Click on buy me a coffee. And you can say you've enjoyed the show by just giving a one off to$3 or whatever it is you want to give. And again, I would be very grateful. So I've got Jason with me today. And I'm very, very excited about that because developing an online presence is so key these days. And Jason actually has a business and it's called Social Shapes. Now social shapes works with businesses and individuals to help them create or improve their online presence. Social Shapes specialises in social media management, designing websites, image creation and writing content. And Jason says his name is Jason Smith, and he's a freelance Digital Designer and marketer. He works with businesses and individuals to help them create or improve their online presence. He specialises in social media management, designing and building websites creating and editing images and writing content. His background is in sales, marketing and account management working in retail travel, arts and culture events and artist management. His corporate experience means he brings professionalism to projects a higher level of customer service and commercial understanding. From a young age he involved himself in the arts he acted in place developed a deep love of music. And as he got older began to appreciate literature and the visual arts, all of which continue to influence the work he does today. Put simply he's at his happiest when being creative and helping others with their visual branding. And I can tell you he's extremely good at it because he's currently helping me to make changes to my website. I enjoy doing my website, but I don't have time to do it. I don't have, I do have time to do it, but I don't have as much time to give to it as I would like. So I would like to say that he is very good, and I'm excited to have him on the show. So without further ado, let's get on with the show. And let's hear from Jason. And we have Jason with us welcome, Jason. Hello, Wendy. Oh, it's a pleasure to have you here. Where are you in the world?
Jason Smith:I'm actually I'm based and live in Woodbridge in Suffolk
Wendy Jones:in Suffolk. Okay. And you've got a nice tartan scarf on today. So you must be an honorary Scott,
Jason Smith:I believe I am I, I had my honeymoon at the Isle of Skye and around there. Actually, when I met my wife, I was living in London, she was living in Glasgow. So I did a long distance relationship for about a year and a half. So I got to know Scotland. Well, and I love it very much.
Wendy Jones:Excellent. Well, welcome to Scotland today, even if it's only virtually. So, um, yeah, we're going to be talking about developing an online presence today. And I know you're the chart with all the answers to this. So I am so excited to have you on the show. So I know the my listeners are more interested in listening to you than what I've got to say, because this is such a big thing these days. It really is. So I'm so glad you're here. So my first question is, your company, which is called Social shapes, helps individuals create or develop their online presence. Why is it so important that an author has an online presence in today's market?
Jason Smith:Well, first of all, I just wanted to see how many people are online. And I went to the National, the Office of National Statistics. And in 2020, there was nearly 95% of the population in the UK, online. So you know, if you think about that, that's kind of that's over 45 million people looking for products that can be services, looking for ideas. So if you're not on there, you're you're going to get overlooked, basically. So, you know, with those kinds of numbers, you have to be online.
Wendy Jones:Absolutely. I mean, I was, I was doing some research. And in 2020, there were over a billion users of Facebook worldwide.
Jason Smith:That's gone up. That's incredible, isn't it, it will have gone up today,
Wendy Jones:there are over a billion users of Tik Tok, which is screaming up the charts in terms of popularity, you know, with with numbers like that, and you know, 95% of the UK are on line that's, you know, 95% of your readers are online. You can't afford not to miss it. So yeah, you're right. So thanks for that. That was those sorts of numbers that extremely useful, actually, because it gives us a benchmark, and shows us just in a simple way, how important it is. Yeah. Yeah, I believe that an online presence should look like?
Jason Smith:Well, I think there's there's two things really, I think, first of all this, it has to be professional. And you can have something, have something look professional, but also allow the personality come through and particularly in, in writing, that's the author, so and that author is going to have a personality, their own, they're going to have values. And I think it's really important that they still come through. And then the second one is consistency. And that's consistent, not over and not only a look and feel or send your messages and branding colours, any colours that you use, try and use these throughout your website. And through that, and also extending out to your social media platforms as well.
Wendy Jones:That's that's a good point, actually. Because very often we'll think of branding as images or ourselves. But we forget that, you know, the colours and everything you use are also part of your branding. And it's important to keep the consistency of all those things. So it's not something I'd thought of so thanks for that. So why, why is a website so important? And what can authors do to improve that website with your help and support? Of course. In other words, what should the website contain?
Jason Smith:Well, I'm a big fan of simple simplicity. And I think, you know, when you're an author or anybody that you buy, particularly authors they've got there's usually a lot of things that they want to communicate, they want to communicate their latest book themselves, any other kind of speaking work, they do, workshops, sign up for, you know, the latest news or blogs, that kind of thing. And I think there's a tendency for some people to put all this on the homepage and it can just look very cluttered, complicated, and I think users nowadays are very fickle, they want to be literally just kind of guided through seamlessly. So if you do have a messy website, which are complicated, people will bounce away. So I think that's really important. And also with that, with that simple homepage, just kind of concentrate on that landing page homepage, I would say, good, strong image of the author, if you can get it professionally taken, yes, go for it. And also your latest book, or both, like, you know, the image and the site, latest book and the author. And also, Next is the about page, the about page is really, really important after the home page is the second most popular page on a website. Because even in this digital age, we are still interested in people and their stories. So if you think about, you know, if you kind of look at these things, it's an opportunity to tell a story about yourself. And people want to know why you're writing, how have you got here? How long have you been doing it? So you know, there's a great opportunity to share that information. And also, things if you want, then have the other things like books, or blogs, or news have a dedicated page for each of these, and put them clearly up in the navigation so people can kind of glance upwards and you know, and visit other areas of your website. And also, just with regards to Gallery, you, you can actually, without having to kind of upload new images to your website, you can actually embed your Instagram, onto a gallery page on your website of which would just mean that any image that you update on Instagram will get automatically updated on your website, which is great. So please keep things nice and fresh. And also, the one of the things that I should mention as well is a call to action. have that on your landing page on every page on your footer are up at the top, asking people to do something, sign up, sign up for new sign up for latest book, just so you can collect emails, and so you can use that in future for any kind of email marketing.
Wendy Jones:No, that sounds really good. Actually. All those things are key. And yet as authors, they're things that we forget, you know, so you telling us this, it can help, even if they're working with other people can help them to, you know, guide, what they're doing. And some people do your own web sites. I've done my mind myself up until now. But I know I'm asking you to help No, because I just don't have the time. And but you know, the professionals, there's always things that they can do to improve and knowing this is important. I mean, as we said already, we cannot ignore social media. Now. It's it's out there, and it's huge. Everybody uses it. The 95% of people are probably using it. Billions of people are using it worldwide. So how can authors help can make their social media presence more effective? And what should we be doing to help them improve their online presence? Social media wise?
Jason Smith:Yeah, sure. Well, first of all, I would kind of take a step back before answering that and because particularly when social media to so many different platforms now there are of course, the main ones like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There's also you know, Pinterest, and Tik Tok and Snapchat and all these kinds of things. It can be tempting or to feel like you need to run every every single one, but I think really feel your own kind of sanity and also just trying to fit everything into a working day, I will kind of choose two or three and just kind of go go with that. And also, some some platforms lend themselves better to different professions. So you know, things like an author, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, are all really good, and they're just so popular. Anyway, so, of course, people are moving into Tik Tok as well. So, you know, that's also a consideration because the, it's new, it's the new kid on the block, as it were an external really, really well. And also, you can get a lot of engagement very, very quickly on this new platform. So, so there's the, you know, the first thing I would suggest is with the number of platforms that you use, but also going back to what I was talking about before, be consistent. And and that's consistency in the look and feel of your images. You know, it's a bit like curating a gallery experience, you know, if you think about the there has to be some kind of thing going through the images, or it's kind of difficult to explain it. So you kind of if you look at Instagram, you go and you go down the feed if you use the same branding colours that can give it a fluidity to the whole of the the images. So I think that's really important. And also just be regular with your posting. Because if you're just kind of posting once every few weeks, the social media platforms know this and you will, Your content will go down further down the list. Now, if you're posting regularly, and also liking and commenting on other people's content, the algorithm for that platform loves this and will pay you in kind it's a very much you scratch mine, I scratch your back scenario, it really is. And also what I would say as well, is not be too salesy, you know, do not go in, because if you think about social media as going to a dinner party, and if you're sat next to somebody who's like, being really salesy, just tell me about, you know, their double glazing, or whatever example, and that you just, you would just kind of turn off if they were being too hard about, you know, trying to sell their products. So, it's all about keeping it conversational. It's kind of, yes, let's advertise your book, but let's not kind of go into art. And because people will get turned off by that.
Wendy Jones:No, I, I would agree with that, as I say, it's called Social Media for a reason. It's not called marketing media. And people forget that, that you're meant to be social and being social means chatting to others, as well as expecting them to chat to you. So it's key that we interact, because interaction is king. Now, even the likes likes are good, but it's interaction and comments that are king now.
Jason Smith:Absolutely. And it's really, you know, that kind of two way street is really, really important. Because I've, I've looked up to social media for some people, where we just kind of put stuff up on there, and not commenting on on other people's content. And it does, well, it's okay, but if you if you're, I always encourage my clients to kind of go in there, because they've got the industry knowledge, and that the contacts to go in there and like and comment other people's content. And, you know, I do monthly and monthly analytical reports for people, and are seeing the difference between people not doing this and doing it over, you know, as a month, a month comparison. And the month where they do again, it's just phenomenal engagement goes through the roof, the followers go through the roof, it's the biggest thing I can you know, if you're going to take anything out of social media, from this chat today, is is that along with being consistent?
Wendy Jones:Yeah, well, I want to talk a bit more about what you do as well. So how can you as a, you know, a business and as a person help authors with this,
Jason Smith:I would say, and I'm the most simplest way of kind of explain is that I save people time, basically. And if you're, if you you're an author, you've got a lot of things to do. If you're writing, you know, the importance, I don't understand the importance of writing. So write myself is that you need to be in that kind of space to kind of do it. Now, if you're kind of thinking, Oh, I should be on social media, but I don't know what to do, I haven't got the time to kind of look into it, I don't know all of these hashtags, or what's the handle, then, you know, this is always going to be something like a fear at the edge of thinking. And so I really just kind of come along to kind of help people with this. And so I just give people back time. So they can do things that they love. And now that can be writing, it can be selling coffee, it can be selling carpets, but it's the same principle for anybody that I work with. Also, the other key thing is, I create when I do work with people, one of the first things that always do is create a social media calendar. Now, this can either be created and then given back to the client, or it can be kind of kept in house and then used for kind of managing a person social media for them. But I think there's a lot of fear once even if you do have company got to grips with social media, sometimes you kind of sit down in the morning, and you think, what am I going to post, you know, they said, there's kind of it can be just like a writer's block or social media block, as it were. Whereas if you created a social media strategy, and you kind of discussed the messages that you want to kind of touch on, you know, is it going to be about writing? Is it going to be about speaking to them about workshops you do? Is it going to be about a book, all these things can be kind of put into a social media strategy? So you know, so you know, on a Monday, I'm going to post about my workshops on Wednesday, I'm going to post about my latest book, and it just takes the anxiety out of out of those decisions. You know, so it again and save time because you're not thinking about it. So you so I would say that's really, really important.
Wendy Jones:Nice one. I mean, again, I've never thought of that. So it's a great tip, and it's good to somebody else. sit down and do it with you. Because you do get a lot when you sit down and think, Hey, I'm going to plan out what I'm going to post on social media, and then you completely forget. Exactly, because nothing's in your brain anymore. So working with someone to do that is phenomenal,
Jason Smith:is and also this, this, this number of when I work with people on social media, it's very kind of a bespoke kind of service. Because some people are more kind of, you know, familiar and have an understanding of social media, so I can post content about the books and the workshops. So whereas the the there's still space for the authors come through, and do the spontaneous, you know, the spontaneity things with regards to news items that come up on the day. So between the two, I think that works really well. Because then you get both the best of both worlds basically.
Wendy Jones:Yeah. Excellent. So when it comes to online interaction, it would appear that images and video as you are seeing, are the becoming more and more important, why do you think this is?
Jason Smith:Well, If a picture is worth 1000 words, I would say a video is worth a million, or at least, it's just just more kind of visual audio information to connect with, then, you know, than, say, a 280 character limit on Twitter. You know, the, the image is so strong, it's just, yeah, it's just a great, great way of, you know, sort of really kind of bringing people in, and video is just fantastic at that it's become increasingly increasingly popular over the last few years. And it's really, I think, it's kind of really entering into it's kind of the best bet, really, because that's if you if you think about tick tock, which we mentioned earlier, which is a video platform, they kind of lead the way with Snapchat. And it's it's really interesting that companies company like Mehta, which is you know, used to be called Facebook, which owns Instagram are following suit. You know, I think if you this year, you're going to see in the Instagram cheat fee change from static images to more video, kind of focus. And that's purely because the result of the popularity of video. And, you know, from people like Tik Tok and Snapchat, they're leading the way, and people are meta is this kind of trying to kind of catch up? Because they're losing kind of a lot of the market?
Wendy Jones:Yeah, I think Instagram is already changing. I see a lot of videos in my feed over, over static images. And Instagram reels, and everything and Instagram Live are all booming. Yeah. So video is king at the moment, it's taking over from static images.
Jason Smith:It really is. And I only say it's only going to get some, it's only going to become more popular. It really is. So, you know, if you, you, it's something that really needs to be considered, you know, going forward.
Wendy Jones:And I get the impression that the social media sites will serve it to more people. If you've got video, obviously, people need to interact, then it served to more people. That's how it works. But I think video is taking is Top Trumps over static images, they're serving video to more people than they are the static images.
Jason Smith:Yeah, I mean, the algorithms for each platform is very nebulous, and you don't really understand but there are there is a feeling yes, that videos will do better, and be seen by more people over a static image. That's the general consensus.
Wendy Jones:No, I mean, as I say, I've been seeing that anyway. And going on to what you do again, some people say, Oh, I'm not good at photography, I'm not good with images, I'm not good with graphics, I'm not good with videos, you know, it's just not my cup of tea. How do you help authors develop the use of images and video? Or what would you advise them to be doing?
Jason Smith:Well, what if we just think about authors, particularly, you are the son, you know, you are the creator of everything, basically. Yeah, I know, I would urge the author to come in front of camera, whether it just for still pictures and also video, because, you know, goes back to people connecting with people again, and I think if, if you can do that, there is a real opportunity to kind of people to get to know you understand your motives and your values and things that I think it's really good don't. The only thing is though, I would caveat that by saying Not everyone is comfortable coming from camera. Yeah. And so it's my job when I when I start working with somebody to actually really gauge where they're at with this and, and I feel like I'm, I'm good at this where if they're not at all comfortable, then we look into other ways of trying to bring, you know, use them, which doesn't cause some kind of anxiety Roenick However, but I do, I can see people who've got something, but they are still kind of worried and scared, and they and that, but I will kind of encourage them. And I and there's a lot of kind of things that you can do about that. And also, just making the video kind of experience of recording video fun, and just kind of bringing that out. And also just allowing people to make mistakes, when they're kind of, particularly when they're doing video, and not to worry about it, you know, this, that's what editing is about. So, so it's really just trying to make those people feel comfortable. And, and also, again, you know, just with, you know, the content, it goes back to what I was saying before to keep it simple and consistent. And also, I'm a graphic, self taught graphic designer, as well. So I worked extensively every day as part of my job with Photoshop and Illustrator. So it just means that I can choose branding colours, I can, you know, develop that, I can curate images, so that, so they kind of have this kind of theme going through them. And I also, you know, I can do this, if the person is looking down the road, I'm, I work with roughly the author, and she's just kind of a couple of miles down the road for me. Whereas I work with you in Europe and Dundee, but they are slightly different relationships, but you can still be done. And you know, whether it's remotely or in person. And so yes, I would say that the key things.
Wendy Jones:Yeah, I mean, I'm a bit of an exhibitionist, Chaka calm and I my direction, and I'm a woman, you know, fantastic. You know, so I love videos and pictures and live on my own. So it does make things more tricky, because you're limited what you can do when you've actually got to hold the camera, and do whatever it is in front of it. You
Jason Smith:know, I would say though, but Nick said that I would say this, get yourself a good tripod. Yeah, you know, he said, it's one of the I do video making, actually getting a good tripod is just freeze up. So it gives you more options. It just makes things look really professional as well. And also look into the use of light stand in front of natural light is the best tip for any, any video or images.
Wendy Jones:Absolutely, yeah, the lighting is key. And obviously, if I was videoing myself, you can't see this. So if you're listening to the podcast, but I do have a bright light behind me, I wouldn't do that. Because it's showing like I've got a halo. And you know, so I am careful. But I do have a tripod. But you know what, here's my top tip, find it in the first instance. Exactly. And that's all I'm adding to this conversation. So moving swiftly onward through my inability to do what you're telling me to do. And not to sell fine tripod as they say. So I want I want, you've talked about branding, but I want to talk to you a bit more. And why is branding so important? And what would your advice be to improve the overall branding for an author?
Jason Smith:Well it goes back to consistency, if you if you're using different colours, different kind of images, different fonts, and you're putting these into your social media, and they're kind of all around your website, it's gonna look nasty, it's going to look inconsistent. Whereas if you when you certainly when you kind of making a website for when I do that for clients, I choose two or three fonts, one for the header, one for the header two, maybe one for the header three, and then one for the body copy, sometimes they can be all the same, it just depends on on the client, but really just trying to keep those down to like two or three. And also go back to the brand colours again. You know, I, when I work with people, I have a little section at the five colours, mainly three to five colours sat in my list straighter, which means that I will go back and use them again and again and again. And this look and this really comes into its own when you go down and Instagram feed, because there's all the images kind of scrolling up in rows of three main normally. And if you've got use of colours, same font using the same font size in each image, it just looks so much better. It was more professional. Just looks fantastic.
Wendy Jones:Excellent, very good advice. What would be your three key tips to any author to improve their online presence?
Jason Smith:I would say the key thing when you should always start and this is kind of advice to authors or companies or whatever it's it's understanding who your customers or your to your readers are. It's no use trying to you know, stop trying to kind of create images and messages to people who just don't will not connect with that. So I would really do know whenever I I stopped working with people we sit down and and we kind of build this kind of customer profile, like, Who is this person? Are they mainly male, female? How do they where do they shop? What did they like, and we kind of build this kind of picture of the person. So we both, both me and the customer, kind of got the same kind of image in our minds. So I would definitely say that that's the starting point, because then that will inform any kind of strategy going forward, about how you use your voice, and the kind of images and also where you're advertising to kind of attract these people. Because if it's an older market, you won't find them on Snapchat, or, and, you know, so it's called tick tock, but that is changing. But you know, so there are, you know, so different social media platforms lend themselves to different demographics. So it's a really good place to start. And also, that going back to that social media strategy, creating a calendar, creating regular kind of content that you come in, you're doing each each week, and that, you know, if you've got the time to post every day, great, but if you can only have time to post two or three times a week, great, that's fine as well, just as long as you do it every week. So you know, there, don't feel that you have to post every day. And also, and just going back to that consistency. Again, just be consistent. Just keep it going and engage with other people, I would say, between on over those three things that I'd say that's the kind of core to any kind of online marketer.
Wendy Jones:Excellent. Well, they've been extremely helpful. And finally, my, you know, what everybody wants to hear, because everybody will want to work with you. Have you got any availability to work with authors at the moment? And how can authors contact you?
Jason Smith:Yes. Is the simple answer to that? I am a one man or one person business. So they say there's a limit to what I can do. And so but yes, I do have space for, for, for all those and, and the really good thing about all this is I love reading, I love writing myself. So it's kind of, you know, with some clients, it's been a little bit challenging kind of getting myself interested in say, accounting. Nothing wrong with accounting, so apologise to any accounting people out there. But
Wendy Jones:I very much doubt many, many accountants are going to be listening to the writing and Marketing Show separate
Jason Smith:well, maybe, maybe, but writing and authors. I'm there already. So it's great. I love it. And then it's always a joy working with authors.
Wendy Jones:Excellent. So how can people contact you?
Jason Smith:Well, I've got a website, it's social shapes.com, you can go there and go to the contact page, and you will find my email. And I My email address is Jason C. Christopher Smith, seven zero@gmail.com. So you can always kind of email me directly. But yes, so you know, that I guess the joy of kind of working with me, you'll only ever work with me. You know, with some agencies, you could be picking up, anybody could be picking up the phone. So I think certainly, the level I work at, you will always get personal service.
Wendy Jones:Yeah. And I know you've got several authors on your books, so you know what you're doing. Working with authors, I can highly recommend you I have to say you've transformed my website. It's been great. And you still are doing things. So thank you very much for joining me today, Jason. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you. And thank you for the advice. And I hope you have a great day.
Jason Smith:Thank you very much, Wendy. And again, thank you very much for asking me and giving me the opportunity to come onto your podcast.
Wendy Jones:No worries. Bye. Oh boy. That brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy H Jones. And you can find me at Wendy H jones.com. You can also find me on Patreon where you can support me for as little as $3 a month which is less than the price of a tea or coffee. You go to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. I'm also went to H Jones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week. And keep writing keep reading and keep learning