Franziska: Hi, and welcome back. Today, I have a little bit of a special excitement, I guess, and that is we just received our advance copies of Social Media for Small Business, which is our latest book, and it is hitting the shelves on the 1st of April. However, it is already available for pre-order. And I’ll give you the link at the end. What I thought I would do in today’s tip is to give you a snippet of the book. And so the book, in the beginning, talks a lot about social strategy, social media strategy. And then it goes through five different channels and into the tactics of how to use these social media channels. And in the beginning, in Chapter 3, I talk about The Maverick Principles. And so what I’d like to do now is take you through these Maverick principles, because they are sort of the basis of how you need to approach social media and there are eight of them, one for each letter in Maverick. So the first one is Momentum. And really what this principle is all about is that you notice if you have used social media, or are using social media, you know that it takes momentum to gain traction, so you can’t give up too early. Just stay at it and keep being consistent, which is another principle coming up, with your content, and you will gain momentum. The second principle is your audience. And what this principle is about is when you create content, when you use your social media channels, even when you select the right channels, always have your audience in mind. Who do you want to attract? Who do you want to attract? And who are you writing for and keep that person in mind? Number three is Value. And we talk about this here all the time. Because this principle applies to marketing, it applies to business, it applies to relationships. And that is to always lead with value. Always lead with value. So when you create content and publish content, make sure that you are focusing on quality, not quantity. Number four, I find this is an important one for me personally, and that is Enjoyment. So what I suggest you do, of course, I mentioned before, you have to have your audience in mind, and then select the channels where your audience is hanging out. So if your audience is using Facebook, that’s where you want to be, if they are on Instagram or, or Twitter or Pinterest, that’s where you want to be. But secondary, if you are the person doing your social media, and you can’t outsource it for various reasons, then also use the channels that you enjoy. I find this a really big, big principle because you might realize that your audience is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. But you personally don’t like Twitter, for example, then focus mainly on Instagram and Facebook. If of course, you have someone on your team that can then do Twitter, that will be ideal. But for me personally, for example, I’m not a big Twitter fan for my personal accounts. So I’m not really using Twitter. But for Basic Bananas, we have a team, of course, that can help with using all the channels so that we can then give you the lessons that we learn on these channels. Number five is Relationships. And this is a big one. You know, a lot of people approach social media like a narcissistic media where it’s just a one-way street. And a lot of companies think that it’s all about just them talking to the audience. But that’s not what social media. it’s called social media~ it’s about.. social means it’s a two-way street. And so you want to focus on building relationships and being social. So rather than just publishing content and talking at people, really focus on building relationships with your customer, with your prospect with real stakeholders that are interested in your business. And I’ll talk a little bit later in a different tip about more strategies to do that and which tools to use to do that. Number six is Improvement. This one you get this already. You~ as you use these channels and if you’re new to let’s say any of them like Pinterest, for example. Just look at.. continuously look at what’s working, and what’s not working. And then keep improving the content that you publish and your approach, your strategy, because with all of these tools, you will see in their analytics, they all have really good analytics, and it will show you exactly what’s working and what’s not working. So look at that maybe once a week, or once a month, and analyze the stuff that is working, and then do more of that, so continuously improve. Number seven, Consistency. And this, of course, you know, you know, I love talking about branding, and brand strategy. And this is what it has to do with this principle is consistency. Be consistent across all your channels, with your approach, with how you’re being perceived. So first of all, of course, you have to know how you want to be perceived by your audiences. And then secondly, make sure that that perception is consistent perception~ is our second last book, make sure that your perception is consistent across every channel. The last one is Kindness. And I know that a little bit of a, you know, sounds a little bit fluffy, and, you know, maybe a bit woowoo. But really, I feel like, there’s already so much gossip and, and, you know, interesting energies out there that we don’t need to contribute to. And so what I always say, with, with anything that we do, whether it’s on social media, or, or different channels is always, always, always respond with kindness. So if someone is saying something nasty, or leaving not a very nice comment on one of your posts, just respond with kindness, because we don’t really know where this person is at. And so don’t take things too personal. And no matter what, always respond with kindness, because it’s obviously part of how you will be perceived as a business. So those are the maverick principles. Throughout the book, I come back to them a lot. And I refer back to them. And if you are interested in getting an advance copy, it will be able to be shipped out on the 1st of April, you can pre-order your copy now. And for anyone who is pre-ordering the book, you will get a signed copy. So, anyone who wants to order the book now, it will be shipped out here from our headquarters on the first of April. And I will personally sign it and leave you a message in the book, too. And if you want to do that, you can go to basicbananas.com/socialbook so that’s basicbananas.com/socialbook. And I think you’ll love it. It’s a very practical book. It also comes with a website where we have a bunch of videos and screen shares that is supportive of all the content in the book, too. So feel free to go grab a copy. And as always, if you know any other business owners who would benefit from this book or any of these tips that we share here, feel free to share it with them too. And I can’t wait to see you soon, hopefully, online/offline. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing and caring. It means a lot. Bye for now.