My Open Kitchen Stories November # challenge 

The My Open Kitchen Stories hashtag challenge is back! And this one is a bit more, well, challenging than previous ones. As ever, the themes are fairly tightly tied into the My Open Kitchen e-course which is currently running (but anyone and everyone is welcome to join in). Please do! Week one is now go, with the first prompt below and the second, third and fourth to follow every week.

So looking forward to what you guys come up with!

WEEK ONE  – 5 things you didn’t know about me

As anyone who has taken the My Open Kitchen course will know, social media is all about building connections with like minded people. People who are already or will go on to become supportive members of your community and advocates for whatever service or product you are putting out into the world.  

And one of the BEST ways to build that connection is to SHOW UP, show your face and share what makes you tick.

Because, as Simon Sinek so famously said, and as I re-quote constantly; ‘people don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it. And, because as I not so famously say and believe, we all just want to make connections with people, not brands or companies (the clue to social media is in the name…it’s social!). I think it’s all about putting out as many connection points as possible and making sure there are no disconnects.

So how do you build those ‘connection points’ without feeling like you’re talking about yourself all the time. By sharing things you do, love and appreciate in a spirit of generosity and value-giving. Sharing all these things in a way that might be helpful to someone else. 

And I think, having a framework to share within can really help take some of the ‘eek where do I start and what do I share and how do I avoid over or under sharing and bleurghhh I don’t want to do this anyway so I won’t.

Also, we humans are curious (nosy?) creatures and we love reading about what makes people tick, because I think, it helps us see ourselves reflected in them and  that make us feel more engaged and on board with what they’re up to because they’re just like me/you. Does that make sense?

So friends…lets do this (in the spirit of sharing, that’s a line from one of my all time favourite shows, Jane the Virgin – any other fans out there?)

This week’s challenge is to share 5 things we mightn’t necessarily know about you in a way that will be helpful to your audience. Not all of them are related to your business, but they are all related to who you are, what makes you tick and I want to know all the answers because I want to feel like I understand you and find those magic connection points with you.

So please, could you, this week, post the below questions and answer them? You could share these with a photo of yourself or an image that relates somehow to one of your answers.

Hi I’m….

The very best part of my working day is…because…

The business app/tool/productivity hack/kitchen tool that I love the most is…because…

The last meal that rocked my world was…because…

The book/song/movie I read/listen to or watch when I need comforting is….because

The place I would visit if I told you you could jump on a plane anywhere in the world tomorrow with no budget….

WEEK 2 – Calls to value

We often hear about the importance of always including a call to action, in your social media and marketing gumph. But what about a call to value? In a recent episode of Content Sells (fabulous poddy by the way), I listened to Joanna Weibe talk about how important it is to establish a call to value before you go in for the call to action. My take on this is…it’s all well and good to ask people to buy your thing or book your service. But first you have to establish the value of that thing and what problem it will solve for me (customer). 

So what’s the difference between a call to action and a call to value? A call to value is going to demonstrate the VALUE of what you do, while a call to action is asking people to move forward and buy/sign up for that thing already.

For example, when telling people about my workshops, my call to value would be me telling you the value of these workshops, what booking in to one will mean to you, why you should care about them, why other people care. This post is an example of a call to value (hopefully!), click on it to see the full post.

My call to action would be clear, simple and fuss free – hopefully I’ve established the value of these workshops already, now it’s just me getting out of the way, telling you the facts and where to book. And this pic/post is an example of a call to action in action!

OK. So this week’s challenge is to post a call to value, (and for bonus points, follow up a few days later with a call to action). Post a story about what you do, the product or service you offer and  why it will solve a problem for us, your audience and customers. 

For example, say you are a cheese maker (hi Nardia!), you could perhaps post a picture of your gorgeous goats roaming happy and free, then tell a story about how your dairy herd graze on rich pastures all day, how this makes a difference to the cheese’s flavour profile, why it makes you so happy to see them so happy and calm as they come in for milking. The problem you are solving here is simply that your customers care about where their food comes from and they want their produce to have a back story. 

Then, a few days later, a beautiful photo of your cheese with clear info for us on how we can buy it ourselves.

Or…say you run a gorgeous B&B just an hour south of Melbourne (hello Renae!), you could put together a post that tells the story of the perfect Gippsland weekend, where to stay (with you of course), where to eat, play and shop. You could make it a slideshow of your gorgeous pics. Then a few days later, follow up with a call to action,  tell us how to book, that you have availabilities coming up, whatever.

Does that make sense? I do get that this challenge is a touch more challenging than most but I really really think if you do it, you’ll see the value, pardon the pun.

WEEK 3 – Network like a boss

Aside from posting good, VALUABLE content, another way to build good IG engagement and numbers is to spend more time in others feeds than your own. As one of my favourite people in IG-land Janet Murray said in her fabulous podcast, I’m requoting here in my words but the idea came from her – just hanging out in your own feed only all the time is a bit like walking into a networking event, standing in the middle of the room and talking about yourself all night. BOOOOOORING.

You need to get out there and mingle, to network, get chatty, ask questions, ask people about what they do, converse in comments, make thoughtful comments that show people you are listening and interested. They will listen and be interested back. Promise.

So this week your challenge is a to get out there and network! Hang out in other people’s feeds, start conversations, chit chat away and then could you share a post listing a few people whose feeds we should all be hanging out in too? And why?

WEEK 4 – Be consistent

The golden rule of marketing is that people do business with people they know, like and trust. Hopefully we’ve established the know bit (week one of our challenge – showing up), and the like bit (we were so social last week, we’ve done some great calls to value too, boom) and now for the trust bit.

For what it’s worth, my view is that one of the best ways of establishing trust is by being consistent and reliable. Consistent in the tone of voice you use, your language, the kinds of images you post, the way you post them.

Here this week we are talking about consistency in the kinds of posts we share, and the best way to be consistent is to treat your feed as a publication, to have one or two or three regular ‘features’ on your feed that you come back to every week or fortnight (whatever is achievable for you, time wise). You know how Country Style magazine has a regular produce section, a diary up the front of all the good things happening across the country that month?

So the challenge here is to choose one regular ‘feature’ and commit to introducing it into your feed once a week, fortnight or month, whatever works for you. So here are five examples/suggestions;

• You could do a regular ‘fun fact’ post, something interesting we mightn’t have known about what you grow, make, do. This could be either a post on your feed or you could pop up in an Instagram Live once a week, at the same time to tell us this fun fact in person and invite any questions as you go.
• You could post a regular recipe or how to. 
• What about a ‘meet the team’ regular feature? Maybe once a month, introduce one of your team members and tell us three fun things about them. Or if it’s just you, pop in once a fortnight or once a month to tell us something we might not know about you and why you do what you do…
• A regular shout out to someone else on IG whose work you are loving is a great easy and lovely regular feature.
• Share a regular recommendation, maybe one thing to read, one thing to listen to and one thing to try cooking, or whatever is relevant to the ‘lifestyle’ that exists around what you do (and ties into your why).