Uncovering Social Media Secrets – An Entrepreneur’s Online World
Date: June 7, 2017
Name: Uncovering Social Media Secrets – An Entrepreneur’s Online World
Presenter: Karin Bohn
It is not simple for entrepreneurs to build a solid online present through social media, especially creating online relationship. Kabuni invites Karin Bohn, the Owner of House of Bohn, to discuss her business insight on social media. This interview will be moderated by Kelsey Jorssen, the Director of Jorssen Media. In this presentation, entrepreneurs will learn the secrets behind online branding. Moreover, Karin Bohn will share her business experience on key fundamental of creating successful online profile.
Karin Bohn is the Owner of House of Bohn. It is one of the award-winning interior design firm in Vancouver. She focuses on all kinds of industries. Karin Bohn was a Sustainable Building Analyst from Stantec Consulting Ltd. In addition, she was a Principal for Karin Bohn Creative for over 3 years. Many young entrepreneurs follow her on her social media. Her genuine online appearance has helped her gain many media coverage. She inspires many new millennials in various of industries.
Interview with Karin Bohn
Bohn used to hate sales. To get herself better, she found connection with her online community by reaching out to them. The power of crating online relationship helped her success.
Bohn believes relationship online is a start. Social media is only a tool for connection. It is an instant way to connect with people. It is a building block for her business. Bohn expanded her interior design career through social media.
She admits she did not see the power of social media. She spent 5 years to build business offline. Until one day, her staff encouraged the company to leverage blogging. This was when online world opened up for Bohn. Online present is important because it can present more personality. However, personal branding can take a long time.
“Building a brand is evolution”
Bohn suggests entrepreneurs to concentrate only 3 social media platforms, and not going overboard. Entrepreneurs cannot just make content and dump it to social media. Audience can sense that. Instead, entrepreneurs need to make content differently on each platform. They need to evaluate the “why” and what they want from it. Importantly, entrepreneurs cannot substitute social media with sales.
Social media is used to inspire, connect and build profile. It is better to tie social media with personal brand and appropriate business topic. The key is to be specific and focus.
Bohn invests a lot in content making. There is no quick turnaround. In her current business model, expanding is more prioritized than monetizing. She invites new prospects in different markets through social media.
The biggest problem with social media is that everyone is trying to copy everything they see. There are too much content and it can take a while to find their own rhythm. Bohn starts from inspiration to personal. The advice from Bohn is that entrepreneurs should try not to look at other people’s profile. This will help them create and find their own authentic style.
The question of picking the right content or holding back can be different for many entrepreneurs. However, for Bohn, her personality is open book. She shares everything. She believes everyone is living in the show and tell age, which means the more they show, the more branding they create. Static website is enough these days. People want to see behind the scene. The key is the element of trust.
Not everyone is paying attention to every social media content. That is why Bohn needs to create all kind of content. It is evolution and the conversation needs to change. In order to change the voice, entrepreneurs need to change their focus. Experiment is essential. Feedback is the appetite for business. When audience is reaching out to them and telling them what they want to see, that is branding.
Bohn believes entrepreneurs need know themselves well. They need to know what fit them. There is no right way of doing things, but they need to measure based on their resource and time. Ultimately, they should not do just because others are doing it. Audience can sense if entrepreneurs are not being authentic.
To get attention, Bohn hires PR person. She manages to get media going for her business. The world of market is always changing, so visibility is an important factor on social media. Based on statistic, service is shorter time than product in media. Therefore, entrepreneurs should not expect of conversion from social media to sale immediately. Bohn still do cold calling to generate business. However, the best skill still has a better chance to close than the best creative skill.
“Trust your content, it will bring back in future”
In her next business move, Bohn will collaborate her design team with digital team. She recommends entrepreneurs to assess the question of “Do I continue to do creative or growth?”. Entrepreneurs are living in the age of “bigger is better”, so they have to focus on their objective. Growth can take time, energy and resource, and growth itself is not enough. Furthermore, bigger followers do not mean success.
Questions and Answers
Bohn believes personal branding is the form of giving back. She wants to help people grow their businesses. She wants to share her experience and expertise to entrepreneurs since it can be lonely in the path of entrepreneurship. Quality is important. However, aiming for perfection can create endless problems. Social media shows personality by creating content that presents Bohn. The key is whether or not if they can deliver the right value to the right audience.
Some people do not like cold calling, so Bohn use cold emailing instead. Cold emailing can be more effective than cold calling. Since emails can be buried with other emails, Bohn suggests entrepreneurs to use both methods. Transparency is important.
“Call is not about sales. It is about giving value to other people”
Entrepreneurs can use social media to search other business’s story. Bohn believes business first and social media second. Business should always be the top priority for startup. In the next stage of business, PR is essential because visibility is what expands the business. The hard question is “what do you do after you receive media spotlight?”. The answer is social media. Bohn shares 5 main stages of business.
- Visibility
- Creditability
- Profitability
- Sustainability
- Scalability
After visibility, people are starting to notice the business. The question is “do they want to work with you?”. This is when next 2 stages come in. Is business making money? Will it be able to sustain? Lastly, business needs an exit strategy, which is scalability.
There is no point to sit and wait. It is important to move forward with creating new content. Networking through social media is a good start, but knowing where the audience hangout keeps business sustainable. Sales and education are different, and entrepreneurs should not expect sales will come from education right away.