Overcoming the fear of posting: 4 social media tips for local businesses
For many small business owners, getting in front of a camera to talk about their business on social media can feel daunting. Shawn Walchef, owner of Cali BBQ in San Diego and digital content creation extraordinaire, is no stranger to that feeling.
“It’s the fear of: How do I look? How do I sound? What is it going to look like on video? Is my lighting right? Am I going to sound stupid? Am I going to look stupid? Am I going to stumble over my words? Well, I’m here to tell you, I did all of that. I continue to do this to this day,” said Shawn, a content creator with 24.3k followers on Instagram.
While managing three restaurant locations, Shawn also runs a media agency and hosts a podcast called “Digital Hospitality” where he discusses how businesses can navigate the internet and social media with confidence. Discover his expert tips on conquering the fear of posting online.
1. Give people a chance to know your story, even at the risk of being judged
The biggest hurdle for business owners is the fear of judgment or sounding silly on social media. Sharing your story is an act of vulnerability, yet Shawn insists it’s essential for growth and connection.
“You need to claim your account, claim your voice, claim your story, and start sharing your story. And it is really hard. When I speak to business owners and restaurant owners, they ask me about social media. ‘I’m shy. I don’t want to make a selfie video and post it on LinkedIn, or God forbid, Facebook, where my friends or my family are going to see me.’”
Shawn says to claim your story anyway. Your entrepreneurial story deserves to be heard, even if it’s subject to judgment. Odds are you’re probably your biggest critic. “People don’t care. The people that do tune in, they’re the ones that matter because they’re the ones that are going to recommend YOU! [For example,] I’m going to be top of mind because [people say]: ‘I just saw Shawn on Facebook. I saw him again on YouTube, and then I saw he popped up in my inbox.’ All of those things keep you top of mind and give you opportunities that most business owners just don’t capitalize on,” Shawn said.
2. Assume every audience is new
You’ve probably told your business’s story hundreds of times to family, friends, and customers. When it comes to social media, you might be afraid of sounding repetitive to your followers, but Shawn said that’s a myth.
“Part of storytelling is understanding that you have to be repetitive, and you have to get better. I think of comedians—Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart—all the greatest comedians. They will tell you by the time they get on their Netflix special or they’re in the stadium, they’ve told that joke tens of thousands of times. Yet business owners, we think: ‘I’ve already told [the story of] why I opened up this business. I don’t want to make my family, friends, investors, and community tired of the story.’”
However, social media opens the door to people who have never heard of your business. Don’t be afraid to sound repetitive because it just means you’ve developed a seasoned pitch for the next new, curious customer.
“I assume every time I go on the local news or I’m on a podcast that this is a new audience. If we do our job properly, I have to reintroduce the fact that we are a barbecue restaurant in San Diego,” he explained.
3. Reframe content creators as “story capturers”
The term “content creator” might sound like another, separate job on top of all of your other responsibilities. Shawn says the “creator” part often makes business owners intimidated by an extra workload. However, he argues you’re not really creating something new when you post on social media; rather, you’re posting the existing content of your day-to-day life.
“You’re a story capture. You’re already doing the things that people want to know about, [like] bringing people behind the scenes and showing them what it’s like to run a barbecue business in San Diego… Some of our best performing content is when I’m just live streaming at my restaurant, where Bernice, our pitmaster, is preparing ribs on the smoker. I’m talking about the process and why we’re doing the things that we’re doing. It’s a chance for us to build a connection,” Shawn said.
Those connections are measured by engagement metrics like views or likes, and more often than not, your most authentic content will receive the highest engagement. You don’t need a script or a production team. All you need is to find an interesting part of the job and hit the record button on your phone to show people all of the hard work you’re already doing.
4. Be consistent, even if your first posts don’t go viral
Shawn often tells business owners not to get discouraged if their first couple of posts don’t perform as well as other creators or competitors. You’re not aiming for virality; you’re aiming to connect with a potential customer that wouldn’t have known your business existed otherwise.
Shawn says the key to building a following and making connections is to post consistently. “I have a small, modest following on Instagram. 23,000 followers. I’ve posted over 5,000 times. What’s the return on investment? Well, the return on investment is I’m on a show like this for Yelp, which is amazing. I’m going to New York with Google. I have a partnership with Toast; they sponsor multiple shows. That’s the return on investment. These companies wouldn’t be working with me if I wasn’t willing to share my story and if I didn’t get better.”
Shawn recalls sharing his story while live streaming on Instagram for four hours straight on Father’s Day. Even with four or five viewers, he was constantly interacting with listeners and discussing his business. One viewer from North Carolina said he was visiting his daughter in San Diego. The next day, the family was dining on Cali BBQ’s patio. “It was insane, but that’s the world that we live in.”
Over his tenured career as a restaurateur and content creator, Shawn lives by one simple equation. “The formula is quantity + speed + consistency will eventually = quality. And the problem is we want quality first. Quality never comes first. It’s not about making one video. It’s about how do I make a thousand? If you get your mind into a place where you need to do one video a day for a thousand days, you will be shocked at how much better you’ll get and how much less judgmental you’ll be of your personal brand standards.”
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear from Shawn, or visit the show homepage to learn about the show and find more episodes.