Social Media: Stop Using Big Grammar That Chases Customers

Today on the podcast, I'd like to share some thoughts about optimizing your social media profile. And the reason why is because cheating on social media today, and I've seen a bunch of profiles and some people are making some very expensive mistakes. Expensive because you're trying to make your profile look nice and you're doing a bunch of stuff, but actually you're turning away people who could become yours, who could be your potential customers.

So that's all we're going to do today on the podcast. How to optimize your social media handle. Now, if you love these sorts of things, then this is the kind of podcast that you should be listening to if you're worried about how to make money using social media, how do you spark conversations with potential customers? How do you close deals source from social media? Then this is the podcast you should be listening to because this is what we do every other day.

And that's what I've been doing over here for the last about five years. My name is Tava Shima Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast. So if you're feeling the vibe right here, then subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect with me because you have questions, comments, queries, or you want to suggest the collaboration, then call me on 08064662140. You can also send a text message or a WhatsApp message.

All right, so today, optimizing your social media, your social media profile. Now, First off, definitions because I want to make sure that we're on the same page. Now, when I say you should optimize your social media profile on this podcast, what I mean is make your social media profile look sweet, make it look attractive, make yourself easier to find and make it easy for people to understand who you are, what you do, your product,

your service, and repeat. When I say optimize your social media profile, I'm saying make yourself look sweet. Let somebody be scrolling through on social media. Then they see your profile and then they hang and they're like, OK, and then they scroll a bit and then they click a big and I say, oh, OK, that's interesting, that's interesting. Or make yourself easier to find in the sea of sameness on social media and make it people.

Make it easier for people to understand who you are, what you do, what your product or service is about. Now, the reason why we should do this for our social media handles is so that we can spark some engagement. You want somebody to first of all, look at your social media handle. You want them to marinate on our page a bit, look at it, scroll up, Scroll down, look left, look right, like something, maybe share something.

Hopefully from some engagement, we want to have some conversations. And from some conversations, we're hoping that we're going to get some business enquiries. So that's the whole point of optimizing your social media handle. You don't optimize your social media profile not because you have nothing else better to do, but because you could actually could lead to some income later down in the future. Now this is the problem.

Most people set up their social media handles and technically speaking, the social media handle is rich and is beautiful. But technically speaking, because you might be using the right technical words on your social media handle, but not all your clients, not all your potential customers or clients are technically sophisticated. Not everybody understands all that jargon that you're putting up on your social media profile.

And the result is some of your ideal clients are looking past you, walking past you, scrolling past you. Because technically speaking, all the relevant jargon is there, but there are people who are looking at it and they don't understand what they're seeing. So they pass you by. They just walk up, pass. For those of you who listened to yesterday's podcast episode, I trust you guys are already feeling me. And I trust you already understand.

And I trust they are picking up what I'm putting down. Now, an example that I've given in the past, and I'm going to repeat again for those of you who are just discovering the podcast, is all these people who say front end, back end developer. Since I started the podcast, you know, I've been connecting with lots of people. So I get to see people in different businesses, different careers. And one day I just had to ask.

I said, oh, boy, you know, this front end, back end, full stack developer, what does this thing mean? And then the guy explained it. I was like, oh, so you build websites? The guy said, yeah, correct. So you you do the fancy technical stuff, all the code, you handle that. The guy said yes, so OK. And then the part where people are supposed to, you know, for the website to look pretty and then all of that, you do that too.

The guy said yes. I said, OK, so that's what you mean by full stack by front end and by back end. The guy said yes. So I said OK, so you build websites and you build apps. And the guy said yes. And in my mind, I'm wondering why didn't you just say so? Because for years I've been seen front end, back end, full stack, blah blah blah blah blah JavaScript. Like I had no idea that that is what you guys do now. Sorry if I'm oversimplifying it.

But The thing is, obviously I run the business now. My mom is retired, but she runs a charity for female about female empowerment, particularly ladies who are in secondary school. My wife has had a couple of business ideas, you know in the past and I never once thought that all those people that I see on LinkedIn who are full sorry, front end, back end, full stack something Omni channel developer. I had no idea that anybody that has that kind of thing in their title is someone who could sort me out as per I need an app, can you help me out or Mumsy needs a website, can you sort her out or Wi-Fi needs an app and a website, can you sort us out?

All the technical terms were there. But The thing is your potential customers who are ordinary people like me, we don't know that that is what front end, back end, full stack, Omni channel, something something something developer. We have absolutely no idea. And you can see that this thing is costing some of you money because your ideal customers, your ideal clients on social media, they're on LinkedIn, they're on Instagram, they're wherever and they're scrolling and scrolling and scrolling.

Personally, I think one of the reasons why we talk like this is because we want to sound smart. Because back when I was in uni, I knew people used to design websites and you know, they didn't call themselves front end, back end, full stack, Omni channel developers. Maybe people think that if you call these things, you know, fancy names, you can charge your premium and you know, stuff like that. You know, maybe. But sure, we need to find a way to make sure that our social media profiles are optimized so that when people come across us,

it's easy to understand. They know who we are, they know what we do. They know the product or the service that we provide. Now, the reason why I'm talking about this today is because I was scrolling through on LinkedIn as after I shared my content for the day and I came across another one, one of my friends and he's described himself as a scrum product owner. So you know what I haven't seen it since you know, scrum product owner, Scrum product owner.

So today I just I just had to send him a message. Oh boy, waiting be scrum product owner because I'm curious. I just want to understand. But before he answered, I said OK, let me go I'll fool around. So I went on my Google Gemini. It's not the best. I just used it because you know, it's already there. It's on my phone. So that's my like my default AI tool that I use for research and coming up with ideas. So I started fooling around and essentially my own understanding.

I could be wrong anyway. And by the way, if I'm wrong, that proves my point that we're not using language that is easy for our potential customers to understand. So if I understand it correctly, the Scrum product Owner, by the way, Scrum is SCRUM. The Scrum product owner is sort of like the class captain. It's like the head boy or the head girl when it comes to product design. So you are trying to come up with a new product, you know,

try to launch something new. You guys have a class captain, you need to have a head boy for the team, somebody who's going to determine, you know, what the priorities are, how often you guys are meeting, what are the priorities you guys are going to pursue, You know, things like that. So essentially the Scrum product owner, that is what they do. Now, I know for those of you who are in the field of Scrum, it makes a lot of sense.

You guys already know this, but you know it because you are in that field, your potential customer. If I was developing a product right now or software or whatever, I would never know that I need a Scrum Product Owner because there's nothing in the word Scrum that signifies the everyday ordinary people that this is exactly what it is that you do. So if you have Scrum Product Owner on your profile, you have people that are thumbing through everyday on social media who are interested in product design,

who need someone in product design. Or maybe investors, for instance, who have a portfolio of their companies, but they need somebody to direct, you know, the people in the company as per, you know, how to develop the product and things like that. Or maybe people who have in customer customer service teams and who are having to deal with, you know, customers on the other hand. And so they need someone to be able to, you know, direct those conversations, gain the insights and then use that insight, you know, to now inform how you develop the product or the service.

All these people are flowing through on social media and they don't know that they need you because what you have on your Instagram handle, on your LinkedIn says Scrum Product Owner. In the industry, you all know what that means. But for the rest of us who could be our potential customers, we have no idea what Scrum means. Not to talk of Scrum Product Owner. So that's the reason why I'm making today's episode. Today's episode is a rant.

Basically, you guys are setting up your profiles in such a way that you are standing in between potential customers. You're putting up barriers between potential customers and the money that they want to bring to you. Make it easier. I'm not saying get rid of those technical terms, but make it easy for people to understand what it is that you do. And by the way, for this particular friend of mine, of course, I'm not going to call out his name, but there are lots of you who are making this mistake.

I've mentioned it to, I've hinted it to him before. Well, let me say here, just for the benefit of those of you who are committing this scene, another step when it comes to optimizing our social media handle is unfortunately, we have to pick a lane because in sales and business development, we have a saying. And the saying is that a confused mind will not make a decision. I repeat, the confused mind makes no decision.

So we don't want to leave people confused about who we are, what we can do, how we can help. The reason why I'm mentioning this is because if you go and check this, my guy's Instagram handle, sorry, his LinkedIn handle, at the top, he has Scrum product owner, but then he also wrote financial inclusion. Then after that he wrote Agile delivery. Then after that, he wrote Gender and social impact. Then after that he wrote youth advocacy and empowerment.

Something something, and there's a bunch of other stuff. These are just the only ones that I decided to tell you guys about. Remember, a confused mind makes no decision. So let's say this guy's a part of your network and you see him every single day. How you know what to recommend him for? On the bio, it has Scrum, product owner, financial inclusion, specialist, agile delivery, professional, gender and social impact something something something, youth empowerment and advocacy something, something something,

amongst other things. And of course, when he's sharing content, he's going to be sharing content, you know, that deal with all those different disciplines. Do you think this guy is making an impression in the minds of people who scroll through and see his content every single day? Do you think they can peg him to one thing? Anybody who hangs around the content I produce on my social media handle, even if you don't know exactly what it is that I

do, you kind of know that if it is business related or sales or marketing related, you kind of know that you can call me up. Like today someone called me up. It's not a problem that I can solve, but you catch my drift in people's minds when they come across my content and they come across my social media handle. The only one I have, which is LinkedIn, they know that if he's business, sales, marketing, maybe customer service, let me call this guy.

That is the benefit of optimizing your social media handles. So finally, if you're like this friend of mine, I beg, pick a lane. Pick one lane. Some of you say I build my business based on word of mouth and referrals. Make it easier for people to refer you if on your social media handle or when you talk to people. You say that you are a scrum product owner, you are a financial inclusion specialist. You're into agile delivery,

You're into gender and social impact, advocacy and awareness. You're into youth empowerment. Like how will the person know what to refer you for? And just in case I haven't proved my point, and if there's somebody else who still isn't convinced, I want you guys to consider one thing for most people when they want to make a referral or the when they want to pick a vendor to work for them, One thing that the average person looks for is a certain level of specialisation.

Think about it, you're moving to a brand new house. You want somebody to help you set up the house. The person says he's a painter. The person says he's a Carpenter. The person says he's a plumber. He also says he's an electrician. Now, maybe if you're in the binder and you're really broke, maybe you might deal with that person. But the average person, the average Nigerian would rather call somebody who is a plumber only to deal with all the plumbing issues and then call somebody who is a Carpenter only to deal with the carpentry issues.

You know, do the mosquito netting, design the shelf, do the dish, do the that. I don't know if there are other parts of the world where people like this whole Omni, you know, Omni, you know, Jack of all trades kind of thing. But in this environment, I really don't think you're helping yourself when you do this sort of thing. So pick a lane. Optimizing your profile doesn't just mean you're using the technically correct words,

because I'm sure that Scrum product owner, according to that discipline, is the technically precise and most correct way to describe what it is that my friend does. The problem just is for people who are on social media who could be his potential customers or clients. We scroll through and we have no idea what is Scrum. Excuse me, we have no idea what a Scrum product owner is. We have no idea what Scrum is. We have no idea what you do.

We have no idea the problems that you solve. So that's it. That's the end of my rant for today. So optimize your social media profiles and please take dressing. Make it easy for people to understand who you are, what it is that you do. And then also please pick a lane. I know everybody wants to be multi talented, what they called multi hyphenate, yeah, sounds cool. But please pick a lane so that people will have confidence that when they pick up the phone and they call you that you are the specialist and this is what you do.

If somebody needs a Scrum product owner, let them call you because when they think product development or when they think Scrum, they call you. Don't mess up your communications by saying you're a Scrum product owner. You're into financial inclusion, you're into agile delivery, you're into gender and social impact, you're into youth empowerment. What is the connecting thread out of all these things? At least as a listener to the podcast who got in touch with me.

And by the time we looked at everything, at least the connecting tissue in everything he spoke about was paint. So because of paint, he can do interior decor. He can also do, you know, normal painting that you need in the house. And you know, at least there was a unifying thing, paint. So for him, what I suggested was, well, you know what? Yeah, you are multi talented. You can do all these things. And from what your clients say,

it looks as if, yeah, you actually do have the the talent. But instead of listing out, you know, 1213 things that you can do, we need to find a way of narrowing it down and communicating better so that for your residential and office painting needs, you know, call sharp. We need to look for a way to tie it in. So pick a lane. If you don't want to pick a lane, look for a way to tie everything in. So that's it. And that's all for today.

If you would love to connect with me, remember you can call send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Thank you for your time and attention. I'll catch you some other time.