When it comes to marketing, Facebook has been my biggest source of attracting my audience over the last few years. But over the last year, I saw a huge shift in connectivity. Less comments, less likes, less growth. What the heck!? Either my audience hates me or Facebook does. Maybe even a combination of both.

Here’s the thing. My Served Up Fresh audience is highly targeted and I don’t build just for the number. I don’t use Facebook ads or any other paid method to build my audience. It is 100% organic.

Everyone is blaming the algorithms for their recent plummet with Facebook connectivity. But here’s one very important thing that you need to understand about Facebook. It’s not as evil as many are declaring.

It truly is refining the way that it performs and it truly is in the best interest of the small business whether it seems like it or not. The more you physically put into your efforts, the more you get back.

It’s exactly like any form of relational marketing: there are no shortcuts to growing your business with the perfect clients.

Facebook is refining its ability to promote harder those who work harder at marketing and making the lazy ones pay for their service. Not evil — actually, it’s genius.

So how am I accomplishing increased Facebook reach? I connect. Pure and simple.
The more statuses I post that require engagement, the longer my status remains in the news feed. The more posts that I share that are share worthy, the more my name gets out there attracting new people. The more I engage, the more people want to join in on what I have. (Wanna connect on Facebook with me? Here you go!)

Yes, engagement is a lot of time and energy. But when you are in need of marketing and don’t have a huge budget just to throw into the wind, Facebook can help.

You can try out different questions, photos, comments, inspirational quotes, and see how they land on your audience.

Then learn from what works, scrap what doesn’t — and you’ll have a running record of what resonates with your crew.

If you want to understand the technicalities of how Facebook’s latest algorithms work, check out this awesome post by ProBlogger that explains it in more depth.

If that feels overwhelming, just start by asking your audience members a question you’d genuinely like to know the answer to, then responding as they respond. Just have a conversation on Facebook once a day with your business page. It’s a great start.

Lean in really close because I’m going to whisper this so no one can hear. Just between you and me, ok?

Just recently I went on a bender and gave myself a nasty comparison hangover. It involved Googling, obsessing, tears on the bathroom floor and then finishing up with a headache and feeling like a pile of poo.

I promptly swore I would never do that again. (We all know it will happen again.)

It can be exhausting to remember that there are a ton of people with the same job title as you. It’s easy to get caught up in obsessing on what your competitors are doing instead of focusing on you and what you should be doing.

Rather than playing stalker over just one individual, take a look at the whole industry. What are they doing that you don’t like? How can you improve it and offer that to clients? How can you stand out in your industry as a whole? What needs to be created or tweaked? What can you do better? Where do you really shine? What do you want your clients to love you for?

These are the questions that raise the board for the industry as a whole without putting anyone on a pedestal (and lowering yourself by comparison).

There are a ton of business books out there. I could sit and obsess over each and every one of them, but that’s totally unproductive and terrible for my mental health. It doesn’t make me better at what I do, and it does absolutely nothing to raise the industry standard for education.

There are plenty of customers to go around. We don’t need to be hoarders. There is a perfect fit for everyone. There are clients out there who want you for YOU, and who won’t look twice at the work of whomever it is you’re ogling at the moment. That artist, lovely as he or she is, is NOT you.

CELEBRATE the differences that we all have, and make this industry as amazing as humanly possible.

Get up off that floor, pop an aspirin, and go do something amazing, okay?

“Treat people well and they will do your marketing for you. For free. Be interesting or be invisible…… Advertising is the cost of being boring.” — Adam Sernovitz

One of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned about marketing came to me unknowingly at the start of Served Up Fresh – the importance of how I treat those around me. When I was just starting out in photography, I was a member of several forums. Every single thing that I was learning in my business, I would turn around and share with those that were on the boards with me.

I shared the good, the bad, and the (really really) ugly. I did this as a friend, wanting to help those around me improve their businesses.

Little did I know, my love for those around me and my superpower of handholding through complicated business lessons would turn into a consulting and teaching business full-time!

The more I shared what I knew, the more people would come to me and ask for help. I didn’t ever set out to be a consultant—I just taught what I knew as I was experiencing it to those around me. I was torn between wanting to continue to help and needing to focus my energy on my business and family. So a friend proposed a book idea and I trusted her judgement and put everything I knew about pricing into a book to refer anyone to if they contacted me for help.
From there, Easy as Pie took on a life of its own.

When I finished writing Easy as Pie, my hubby and I literally said to each other, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if this book sold 100 copies?” I threw up a cheesy website that I designed from a series of jpeg html splash pages. (No website engine could find me if they wanted to!)

I told my friends on the forum, “Sorry girls, I can no longer answer every e-mail asking for help with your pricing. I put together all I know in a pdf that you can download if you really need my help. Wish I could do more — but hopefully that will help.”

There was no fancy launch. I didn’t have a Facebook page or a blog. I didn’t have an e-mail list. I didn’t have a following with my photography biz (most probably don’t even remember what my work even looked like since I shared business information and rarely talked apertures and lenses). There was no marketing plan, no blog features, and no one recommending the book as an affiliate.

The day I put the site up and posted the message that it was live, I sold 114 copies.

What I didn’t realize was that everything I had been doing on those forums for a few years was relational marketing. I wasn’t pitching anything, I wasn’t trying to sell anything, I didn’t set myself up to be the authority trying to fix everyone.

I was coming alongside my peers and sharing. I was loving on those around me, encouraging them in their struggles and celebrating with them in their successes. I was focusing on them and their needs. I got nothing out of it during that time except the joy of being able to help however I could.

Not everything I did worked, not everything I taught was genius, I’m sure I gave terrible advice from time to time. But what was the most apparent to those around me was that I was genuine in how much I cared about them and for that they trusted me. And then they told their friends about me. And that silly little jpeg splash page website started getting more sales (although I could never know how much traffic for sure since I didn’t have Google Analytics), I was asked to be special guest blogger, to teach lessons on forums, and to do giveaways.

People kept talking about this little pricing guide that was changing businesses.

My business is proof that you can have a successfully growing business without a fancy crazy website and without a huge marketing budget (and actually- little to no marketing budget!). You just need a foundation of loving on those around you.

You can invest hundreds and thousands into a marketing budget which can attract a few clients. Or you can invest your energy and time and little to no money into continually looking for ways to benefit the lives and businesses of other people.

Instead of a $100 ad, go the extra mile.

How much word of mouth could you get from a $100 ad compared to how much could you get by giving 3 clients $35 rose bouquets or one client a gift certificate for $100 to a day spa after you deliver her maternity session images?
Offer a little lesson in the home of your clients after a session to show them how to better use their cameras to capture day to day in between session images.
Take your clients out to dessert after a session.
Show up to a session with presents.
Take a different small business owner out to lunch each week.

These gifts of your time and energy will cause rampant word of mouth marketing to happen.

There are endless ways to be authentically YOU, marketing yourself without once being pushy about what you’re selling. Whatever your budget currently is, make a list of out of the box things you can invest in and turn that investment into word of mouth marketing that will make you amazing.

You are far from boring — paying for advertisements is your last resort when you have some much to offer of YOU right at your fingertips!

For more ways to make the most of word-of-mouth marketing, check out Piece of Cake Marketing. It launches today!

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but there just ever a perfect time to raise prices. You can wait and wait for the perfect moment, but it’s never going to come.
Fortunately, there are signs that a price increase is due, so you’ll know when the time is ripe for an adjustment.

You aren’t paying yourself a paycheck because there isn’t money left over after expenses.
You seem to only be attracting the people who hire you but still balk at your pricing — right in front of you.
You want to work less but can’t afford to reduce the amount of money you are currently bringing in.
Wal-mart’s prices are higher than yours.
It’s been over two years since your last price increase.
It’s time for you to grow your business and hire an assistant to help reduce your workload.
All your photographer friends are telling you to raise your prices because you are worth more.
Your spouse is telling you to raise your prices because you are worth more.
Your children are asking for quilted toilet paper instead of single ply.
The IRS is telling you that your deductions exceed your income.

The thing is, you may never feel ready to raise your prices.

That wave of nausea may not pass until you get hired for the first time on that new pricing. You may constantly question yourself and doubt what you know you need to be doing.

It’s a terrifying thing to take a leap of faith and hope that you are making the right decision. But it’s never the right decision to do nothing, to settle for what you know you are choosing to do because it’s safe.

The only way to have longterm business success is to do what everyone else is afraid of doing.

THAT’S how to stand out. THAT is how you create an amazing business that is profitable, sustainable and one that your clients are thrilled to be apart of because they know that you are in it for the long haul.

Let me know how you know it’s time to raise prices in the comments — and if you need help figuring out profitable pricing for your business, take a look at my Easy as Pie pricing guide.

This one’s personal, folks. I once made the mistake of talking about another business owner — a completely vague reference, no names were mentioned — but it got back to her because I was one of my best clients who I had on my personal page also happened to be one of her loyal customers.

She immediately went to the other business owner telling her about what I had said. I was completely frustrated and felt like it was a safe environment to vent, but it turned into being the end of all our marketing collaborations. That’s how I learned a valuable lesson about Facebook professionalism and became far more aware of how the things I say on Facebook could be perceived by people who were my clients or potential clients.

Common Facebook turnoffs will keep you from earning to your full potential this year, and you might not even know you’re doing them.

#1 — Chatting about overwhelm.

Business owners like to be busy, but clients do not like to feel the effects of a business owner who is busy. When a business owner continually talks about how busy they are, the clients see themselves as being not important.

If you have so many clients, then I’m not a valued necessity. Or, they may also think of it as you being so busy that you are overextended and disorganized. This could undermine their confidence in your ability to handle them as clients.

Busyness comes with the territory of being an adult. You don’t even need to go there, we all understand how you feel.

#2 — Sharing the nightmare.

Facebook should never, ever be used as a place to handle customer service. If a client posts something customer service related on your Facebook, immediately refer them to the most appropriate means of contacting you.

Handle your situation quickly and privately. But most importantly, your customer service issues should never even be hinted at on Facebook.

When you talk about a client in a negative fashion — even if you feel like it is justifiable because you have a certified nutjob you are dealing with — your other clients do not know the issues, and shouldn’t!

Not only is this disrespectful to your client, it makes you look completely unprofessional.

If this is one way that you handle your business, your clients will assume that you have a disregard for professionalism entirely. It causes damage with your relationship to those who are silently observing.

#3 — Whining about editing.

Which is better: I’m so busy!!! I’ve got 126 sessions to edit this week! or OMG. I have 13 sessions to edit today and I haven’t showered :bangs head on desk:?

Answer: both are unprofessional status updates.

You may feel freaking amazing at how busy you are or you may be completely overwhelmed at the tasks lying ahead of you.

Either way, you are in business. Entrepreneurship means you word hard, and you don’t necessarily share it with the world. Editing is part of your job, it’s gotta be done, and there’s no need to whine about it. Ever.

Call a friend if you want encouragement or need to vent for two minutes, you’ll feel better!

#4 — Gossip.

Please, don’t talk about other photographers or business owners negatively.

This includes tagging them in posts, even if they’re a multi-billion dollar corporation.

If you are trying to bash a company, don’t be surprised if one of your clients does the same to you one day.

Golden rule applies here — speak of others the way that you would want them to speak about you. Even on Facebook.

When you are on other business pages, what are your favorite ways to have them engage you in conversation so that you know them and their business better? Share in the comments what keeps you coming back and maintains you as a page follower!