I don’t know about you but I am addicted to essential oils. I love reading about them, using them in my home and especially love seeing them being shared in my newsfeed as more and more women embrace their magic and power. I am also lucky enough to have worked with a lot of women who are building an essential oils business and want my social media support. And what I’ve come to realise is that there are some questions that I always get asked about using social media to build your essential oils business. So today, I want to share the answers to those questions with the ultimate sacred social media guide for your essential oils business.
How to use social media in a way that feels really, really good!
Can I start this off with a personal story? I signed up as a wellness advocate 12 months ago and other than a few Insta-Stories and vague social media posts, I’ve barely shared the journey with my social media soul tribe. It’s not because I don’t love the oils or because I don’t want to mix them with my business (I totally do!) but whenever I try to get started, I paralyse myself with all of the options. There almost feels like there are too many ways to do it!
But when it comes to working with my clients and helping them to share essential oils on social media, the paralysis isn’t there. I can easily guide my clients to uncover how they most want to show up on social media and what’s truly important to them. I’ll share these tips with you very soon but first, I want you to think about how you could use social media in a way that feels really, really good. Because this is the only way to avoid the paralysis that I’ve experienced and such an important part of your social media strategy.
Using social media in a way that feels really, really good is actually about alignment. It’s about understanding who you are and what’s important to you and aligning all of your goals and actions with this. To support you in doing this, I want you to think about who you really admire on social media. We can often show up on social media according to how we think we ’should’ but if we take a step back and look at the people who most inspire us then we can get a really good idea of what’s important to us (and that’s alignment, right?)
So here is what you can do:
1. Make a list of people that you really admire on social media. These could be people who have an essential oils business or people who don’t use oils at all.
2. Once you’ve created a list, think about what these people have in common. What is it that you’re attracted to?
3. Now choose 3-4 words that could sum up the 'vibe' of all of these people.
4. Once you have 3-4 words, use them as a guide for how you show up on social media. How can you show up in alignment to those words?
5. If all else fails, look back on your inspiring people list and ask: what would they do?
This might seem like a really simple strategy but it is powerful in helping you to choose those things that are in alignment to who you are. We can sometimes get lost in all the things that social media can be for us but when you take a step back and use your inspiring people and words as a filter, it makes it really clear what’s aligned and feels really, really good to us.
How to set goals to help achieve your big vision
If you’re reading this blog post then I can only imagine that you have big dreams of building your essential oils business to a specific rank. Do you know what rank you’re aiming for? Have you given yourself a desired time frame for achieving the goal? Or perhaps you have a monetary goal? You might be aiming to reach ‘gold’ rank by the end of the year? Or perhaps you want to earn an income to supplement your current part-time job?
Those are all great goals to have but how does that translate on social media? How will social media help you to achieve that?
I’ve seen so many wellness advocates set themselves business goals but fail to take it any further and think about what they need to do on social media in order to achieve that goal. So that’s where social media goals come in.
Social media goals are short-term goals (normally 90 days) that identify exactly how social media will help you to achieve your business goal. Here is an example of breaking your business vision down into bite-sized social media goals.
If your business vision was to achieve a particular rank by the end of the year then ask yourself the following questions:
How many women will you need to have enrolled?
How many business builders will you need?
How many classes will you need to hold?
Once you have answers to those questions, start to think about how you can achieve that:
Do you need to post to social media more?
Do you need to tap into different communities?
Do you need to grow your social media following?
Once you have a list of ways that you can achieve your business vision, consider how you will use social media to make that happen.
Some examples might be:
Engaging with a particular community who you know will be interested in the oils
Reaching out to a particular person who you think would be a great business builder
Consistently sharing about the oils and how you use them
Reaching out to new audiences using location-based hashtags
Regularly promoting your classes using social media
You can then use these examples as 90 day social media goals, keeping in mind that these goals are the stepping stones that allow you to reach that big business vision. Believe me, you’ll be golden in no time!
How to connect with potential customers
I talk to a lot of women who have an essential oils business and I always get asked “How do I connect with the right people?" That is, the people who really want what you’ve got!
Having 10k followers on social media isn’t enough if none of them are interested in working with you. For example, I hear from a lot of wellness advocates who mention that the majority of their social media following is made up of people with other essential oils businesses. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but when using social media for your essential oils business, it’s quality over quantity.
This means that you don’t need a lot of followers, you just need the right ones.
Here are some questions to support you in doing that:
How many people do you need to enrol to reach your next goal?
What types of people are you hoping to call into your business?
Where can you find these people hanging out online?
What can you do to connect with them?
I hope answering those questions not only convinces you that you don’t need 10k followers to be successful in your business but also helps you to identify how and where you can connect with potential customers. For example, if you are wanting to call in more parents then you can use social media to tap into communities where you know there are a lot of parents hanging out. And instead of connecting with 100 of them, you might want to focus on nurturing relationships with just five people. Quality over quantity, always!
How to speak about the oils in an authentic way
This is the question that I get asked the most as a social media mentor: how do I speak about the oils in an authentic way?
And I completely understand where this comes from. There is a lot of information and a lot of sharing about the essential oils (especially on social media). So how do you take a step back from everything that is being said about them and tap into what’s really true for you?
My biggest tip is to get really clear on three main areas of your business including:
Brand Values: What is truly important to you and your business?
Feeling Words: How do you most want people to feel?
Signature Story: What’s your experience with the oils?
Once you’ve worked through these questions, you should have a clear idea about what’s true and authentic for you. So next time you share about the essential oils, come from that place.
Use your brand values as a filter for your social media posts. For example, one of my brand values is creativity so I make sure that all of the content that I share (no matter what it is) relates back to creativity.
Use your feeling words as a guide for the tone and mood that you portray on social media. For example, I want my social media followers to feel feminine when they read my posts so I ensure that the way that I speak aligns with that feeling.
Use your signature story to help connect and share your own experience with the oils. For example, the way that I use my essential oils is probably different to the way that you use them and people connect to different stories and experiences. Sharing your experience is powerful!
How to talk about the oils in new and different ways
Now that we know how to share the oils in an authentic way, how do we share that in different ways without repeating ourselves?
This part is all about being creative and making the most of the variety that social media offers us. For example: instead of posting an image to Instagram like you normally do, you can film an Insta-Story instead. Or perhaps you could run an essential oils class on Facebook Live? Or create a free Facebook Group to share about the oils?
I could easily write a list of all the different ways that you can share content on social media but I’m wary that it would be outdated very quickly. That’s how fast social media changes!
So instead, I want you to keep an eye out. Start noticing the way that other people are using social media.
What do you like about what they’re doing?
How could you implement it on your social media?
And if you want to take this one step further, create a swipe file of inspiration. You can do this using Evernote, the ‘Saved’ function in Facebook and Instagram or by simply taking screenshots on your phone and saving them to a specific album. The important thing is that you know exactly where to go to look for the ideas. Then start getting creative and try new ways to show up on social media!
How to use social media without burning out
I take a bit of a different approach to showing up on social media. While lots of social media experts talk about consistency and frequency, I prefer to talk about seasonal social media.
A seasonal social media plan means that you don’t need to show up on social media with the same frequency every single day or week or month. It means that there will be some months where you are very visible and show up once or twice every day and then some months where you will go a little slower and maybe only show up three or four times a week.
I think this is especially important in your essential oils business as there is quite an ebb and flow to it all. One month as you go for a new rank might be busier than another month where you’re working on stabilising your team - and your social media can work with that ebb and flow.
To help you create a seasonal social media, you will want to think about the following things:
What is my main aim?
For example: reach the next rank in your business, mentor a new business leader and support them to reach a new rank and create a mentor program for your leaders
What are my priorities?
For example: running essential oils classes, clearing time in the calendar to work with your team and creating an outline for your new mentor program
Are there any special events happening?
For example: convention events, incentive trips and leader training
Are there some super special promotions for you to share?
For example: enrolment promotions and BOGO promotions
Asking yourself these questions should allow you to determine how often you show up on social media. I like to map this out three months in advance so I can clearly see which months are busier than others. If I have two busy months in a row, I consciously choose to slow down the following month and allow myself to take a little break on social media.
And if you want to put this all together for yourself then you will love my 'Create An Aligned Social Media Plan’ Workbook which you can get for free by signing up below.
How to celebrate your success
Now this is the part where I want to remind you that social media is a slow-burn and you need to celebrate your results. Whether it’s 100 new followers or even just one new and wonderful connection, it all adds up to your unique and meaningful legacy. So celebrate it!
Celebrate the opportunity to share your voice. Celebrate the opportunity to connect with new people. Celebrate the opportunity that social media gives you to build your business.