Speaker 1: In the whirlwind of social media, the quest for online glory often starts with a flurry of posts that are as random as a squirrel on caffeine. But dear entrepreneur, there is a method to the madness. It is time to step off the chaos train and embark on a purposeful journey of social media mastery. If you think social media is a waste of time, then this is for you. I'm Tori Mathis, Marketing Agency CEO, Digital Marketing Coach at The Smart Arsenal, and I have helped thousands of business owners get boatloads of clients from social media. And I want to introduce you to your new best friend when it comes to social media marketing, and that is the T.A.P.S. Method. But first, we need to say goodbye to the chaotic world of random posting. Ah, random posting. The favorite pastime of those who think that the digital dartboard is a solid marketing strategy. Posting anything and everything without rhyme or reason can feel liberating, but it is about as effective as using spaghetti noodles to paddle a canoe. Enter the T.A.P.S. Method, a beacon of sanity in a sea of randomness. Here is where everything changes. So picture a world where your posts actually serve purpose beyond cluttering up the virtual realm. The T.A.P.S. Method offers a structured approach to transform mindless posting into strategic marketing. T.A.P.S. stands for Top of Mind, Ask for Engagement, Photos and Videos, and Sell, Sign Up, and Serve. It is the ultimate formula for purposeful posts. P. Reminds us to stay top of mind by posting consistently, making sure our audience never forgets who we are or what we offer. A. Encourages us to ask for engagement, sparking interactions by posing questions that foster community and enhance content visibility. P. Highlights the power of photos and video, leveraging visual content to showcase products, establish authenticity, and to elevate the know, like, and trust factor. And lastly, S. Instructs us to strike a harmonious balance between selling, getting people to sign up, and serving our audience. Offering value through sales, invitations to sign up for our offers, and informative content that showcases our expertise. In the digital world awash with noise, the T.A.P.S. Method is the compass that guides us toward strategic and purposeful, effective social media marketing. It can be done. It's true. So let's dive into each of these so that you can see how easy this can turn your social media followers into actual customers. Let's start with T. Top of mind. Remember that time you met someone and then completely forgot their name? What's your name again? What's your name? What is it? Is it Bill? Is it Bob? Yeah, that's what happens to your brand when you don't post often enough. The T.A.P.S. Method helps you with consistent posting to ensure that you're as memorable as a cat wearing a top hat. Show up regularly so people know you're not just a digital mirage and let your legitimacy shine brighter than a neon sign. Here are some examples of T. Posts, top of mind posts, that can help you transform your followers into customers by keeping your brand top of mind. Daily tips. You can share daily tips that are bite-sized tips or advice related to your industry. This consistent engagement keeps your brand visible and positions you as a reliable source of information. Throwback moments. Share memorable moments from your brand's history or your journey. This showcases your evolution and adds a personal touch, making your brand more relatable. Quote of the day. Post inspiring or thought-provoking quotes that resonate with your brand's values. This engages your followers and connects with your content on a deeper level. Flashback Friday. Share past successes, projects, or milestones that highlight your brand's achievements. This reminds your followers of your expertise and your accomplishments. Behind the scenes. Offer a glimpse of your daily operations, your team meetings, or your workspace. This humanizes your brand and builds a sense of connection with your followers. Motivational Monday. Start the week with a motivational message that aligns with your brand's message. This sets a positive tone and reinforces your brand's mission. Trivia or fun facts. Share interesting trivia or facts related to your industry or niche. This engages followers and presents you as a knowledgeable authority. User spotlight. Showcase a loyal customer or follower or share their experience with your brand. This demonstrates your customer-centric approach and fosters a sense of community. Highlight user-generated content. Share content that your followers have created, whether it's using one of your products or engaging with your brand. This encourages engagement and showcases your products in real-life scenarios. A weekly recap. This summarizes the week's highlights, including important announcements, top-performing posts, and upcoming events. This keeps your audience informed and engaged. These top-of-mind posts maintain a consistent presence in your followers' feeds, ensuring that your brand remains top-of-mind. By sharing valuable content, fostering engagement, and showcasing your brand's personality, you can create a lasting impression that makes your followers more likely to choose you when the time comes to make a purchase. Next, let's move on to A. Ask for engagement. Imagine standing on a soapbox and asking questions to a bustling crowd. That's what asking for engagement is like in the virtual world. Engagement isn't just a popularity contest. It's a way to understand your audience's innermost thoughts while appeasing the algorithm overlords. You see, the more engagement your posts get, the more the algo will push your content out. Ever wonder why people obviously spell things wrong or say things that purposefully get people going? It's all about engagement. But that doesn't mean you have to do these types of tactics to get engagement. This step involves crafting thought-provoking questions or prompts that resonate with your audience and invite them to join the conversation. Here are some examples of A posts that encourage engagement and interaction. Caption Contests Share a fun or intriguing image related to your brand and ask your followers to come up with creative captions. This sparks creativity and invites followers to showcase their sense of humor. This or That Present your followers with a choice between two options related to your niche. For instance, a fashion brand might ask, floral prints or stripes? Let us know your preference in the comments. Fill in the blank. Create a sentence that relates to your brand and leave it blank for your followers to complete. This could be something like, my favorite way to unwind after a long day is blank. Ask for advice. Seek your followers' opinions or advice on a topic relevant to your brand. For instance, if you're a travel company, you might ask, what's your top travel tip to pack efficiently? Let me tell you, people love to share their opinions. Share a story. Pose a question that prompts your followers to share a personal story or experience. For instance, a fitness brand might ask, tell us about the first time you hit a fitness milestone. We would love to celebrate with you. Caption this image. Share a captivating image and invite your followers to provide a creative caption. This encourages engagement while also allowing you to showcase your product or services in a visually appealing way. What's in your bag? If you're in the fashion or the lifestyle industry, ask followers to share the contents of their bag and how your products might fit in. This encourages user-generated content and provides insights into their preferences. Trivia time. Share a fascinating fact related to your industry and ask your followers if they knew about This not only educates your audience, but it also encourages them to share their own insights. Flashback Friday. Share a nostalgic photo or a memory related to your brand and ask your followers to share their own throwback moments. This builds a sense of community and connection. Personal challenges. Share a personal challenge you faced or overcome and encourage followers to share their own challenges or experiences. This fosters authenticity and relatability. Remember, the key to successful A posts is to make them relatable, interactive, and aligned with your brand's values. These posts don't just generate engagement, they also provide valuable insights, nurture relationships, and ultimately pave the way for turning engaged followers into customers. Next is photos and video. In a world where attention spans are shorter than a squirrel's attention span, photos and videos are your secret weapon. They're like the Swiss Army knife of social media, showing off your wares, building trust, and making you look cool. Here are some examples of P posts that utilize photos and videos to help transform your followers into clients. Product showcase. Share high quality images or video of your products in action. Whether it's a clothing item, a gadget, or artwork, showcasing your offerings in real life scenarios helps followers envision themselves using or owning them. Before and after. If your products or services lead to transformations, present compelling before and after photos. This could be a fitness journey, home renovation, or even beauty transformations. Behind the scenes. Provide a glimpse of behind the curtain by sharing candid photos of your workplace, your team members, or the creative process. This builds authenticity and connection with your brand. User generated content. Encourage your clients to share photos and videos of themselves using your product. Repost these images with their permission, showing how your offerings positively impact real people. Showcase reviews. Share visually appealing images or video of your products with quotes from positive customer reviews. This visually reinforces the quality and value of your offerings. Tutorials or how-to. Use a series of images or video to guide your followers through a tutorial or how-to related to your niche. This showcases your expertise and helps followers see the benefits of your products or services. Event coverage. If you attend industry events, trade shows, or even host your own events, share images that capture the excitement and energy. This creates a sense of FOMO, fear of missing out, that can drive engagement and interest. Product comparisons. Use images to visually compare different versions or options of your products. This helps your followers make informed decisions and to choose the best fit for their needs. Customer testimonials. Pair photos or video of happy customers with their testimonials. This personalizes the feedback and adds a human touch to your brand's success. Show your process. If you are in a creative industry like art, design, or crafting, share step-by-step images of your creative process. This showcases your skills and your dedication while also making your work more tangible to your followers. And incorporating these p-posts into your social media strategy not only enhances your brand's visual appeal, but it also provides a tangible evidence of the value that your products and services offer. When followers see your offerings can positively impact their lives, they're more likely to take a step from an admirer to a client. And last, we have S. Now this one is sell, sign up, and serve. Let's face it, we all need to pay the bills, but relentless self-promotion is like wearing a sandwich board that says, buy my stuff, in a crowded mall. People will avoid you like the plague, but the TAPS method allows you to have a tasteful medley of selling and encouraging sign-ups and doling out the freebies like Oprah is giving away cars. Oh, and sprinkle in some sage advice like fairy dust to establish your expertise and your charm. Here are some examples of some S-posts that strike a balance between selling, providing value, and serving your followers, ultimately guiding them towards becoming customers. Educational Tips Share bite-sized tips or insights related to your industry that provide value for your audience. For instance, if you're a nutritionist, you could come up with a post of quick tips about healthy snacking. FAQ Series Address common questions and concerns your potential customers might have. This showcases your expertise and helps alleviate doubts, making your followers more comfortable with the idea of purchasing from you. Case Studies Share real-life success stories or case studies that highlight how your products or services have positively impacted your customers. Use compelling images and narratives to make these stories relatable. Limited Time Offers Introduce exclusive offers or discounts to your social media followers. Create a sense of urgency and excitement that encourages them to take action and make a purchase. Sneak Peeks Give your followers a sneak peek of upcoming product launches, services, or events. This piques curiosity and anticipation, laying the groundwork for future conversations. Expert Insights Share insights or opinions from industry experts positioning yourself as a knowledgeable authority. This builds trust and makes your followers more inclined to choose you over competitors. Problem Solution Posts Identify a common problem that your audience faces and present your product or service as the solution. Illustrate this with images and compelling copy. Product Demonstrations Use images to visually demonstrate how your product works or how the service is carried out. This is going to help your followers understand the benefits and functionality. Interactive Challenges Create challenges that relate to your products or services and encourage followers to participate. For example, if you're a fitness brand, you could challenge your followers to complete a workout and share their results. These S-Posts strike a harmonious balance between promoting your offerings and adding value to your followers' lives. By showcasing your expertise in providing solutions and showcasing the benefits of your products and services, you guide your audience towards considering and ultimately making purchase decisions. But even with all of this, there is one element that can destroy this entire strategy. And this is what nobody understands. Let's talk about the missing link to social media posts. Ah, the piece de la resistance. Calls to Action, also called CTAs. They are the secret sauce that turns lukewarm posts into sizzling success stories. CTAs are that nudge that prompts your audience to take action. Whether it's clicking a link, subscribing to your newsletter, or doing the hokey pokey, they're often as elusive as Bigfoot in the world of social media posts. Imagine hosting a party and forgetting to tell your guests where the party is at. CTAs prevent this digital party dilemma. They guide your audience on what to do next. Whether it's exploring your offerings, signing up for your email list, or indulging in your freebies. Now imagine your posts are like a suspense novel without a thrilling conclusion. That's what happens when you omit your CTAs, your calls to action. Your audience is left hanging there like a cliffhanger, unsure of their next move. CTAs bridge the gap between content and action, turning casual observers into engaged participants. Creating a simple content calendar using the TAPS method can provide structure and direction to your social media strategy. You want to start by outlining your content categories based on TAPS. T for Top of Mind, A for Asking and Engagement, P for Photos and Videos, and S for Sell, Sign Up, and Serve. Then brainstorm specific ideas within each category. For example, under each A, consider asking questions related to your industry or seeking opinions from your followers. Next, assign these ideas to specific dates or time slots in your content calendar. This ensures consistent posting schedule aligned with the TAPS approach, incorporating a variety of mixing engaging questions and product showcases behind the scenes. The cool thing is you can mix and match and pick the ones that are going to work for your business and the ones that you actually like to do, like social media might actually be fun after this, and you're going to be attracting clients. Now this could look as simple as this. Monday, T, a top of mind post, Tuesday, A, ask a question, Wednesday, P, post a photo or a video, Thursday, S, sell, Friday, T, top of mind post, Saturday, A, ask a question, Sunday, P, post a photo or a video, and then the next week change sell to sign up, and then the next week do serve, and then you repeat. And that way you have a nice base of content that is constantly attracting new clients to your business. Now to streamline the process and make it even more effective, you can consider using a social media scheduling tool like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Later. These tools allow you to plan and schedule your posts in advance, saving you time and ensuring a consistent presence on your chosen platforms. You can upload your content, add your captions, and set posting times that align with your audience's peak engagement periods. And incorporating the TAPS method into your content calendar and utilizing social media scheduling tools empowers you to create purposeful posts that engage your audience, build connections, and guide them towards becoming valuable customers. And don't forget those calls to action on every single post. In the realm of social media, randomness is so last season. The TAPS method is your compass, guiding you through the maze of memes and hashtags by adopting purposeful posting and embracing the might of calls to action. You are not just another pixel in the vast digital canvas, you're a masterpiece waiting to be discovered, shared, and celebrated. Ever wonder if social media is even smart for your business marketing or how it should fit into your overall strategy? Or are you like many that agree that it is just a waste of time for your business? Well, I have got the perfect answer for you. And it is my Smart Marketing Quiz. In just a couple of minutes, you will have a detailed plan on how to get smart and more effective with your marketing. Do you need more social media marketing? Should you try email? Maybe do videos? The quiz will give you a customized plan on what to do to make your marketing easier, more effective, and even a little bit of fun. So go to the link in the description below and take the quiz today. And remember, you do not need crazy tech skills, buckets of cash, or dedicated staff to market your business or attract new clients. In fact, you don't even need a lot of time. What you need is to be smart. And posting with purpose on social media is smart for your business. If you enjoyed this video, click right here to subscribe and click here to watch another valuable video.