Hopefully by now you know the importance of building your brand’s presence on social media. However, there may be days when you ask yourself, “WTF am I doing?”
Oftentimes social can seem overwhelming and confusing. For example, you may log onto Pinterest to try to figure it out and three hours later all you’ve found is an amazing recipe for brownies (marijuana optional).
Most cannabis business owners have got the “weed porn” portion of social down – meaning they know how to post pictures of weed on Instagram and Facebook but don’t worry about much else.
Well, I’m here to tell you that there is a lot more to social than weed porn.
And… weed porn is one of the big red flags for Facebook and Instagram and is a great way to get your account shut down.
If you are ignoring a larger content marketing strategy and only posting content that is full of hype and sales, you are not only likely to get your account shut down, but you are also very likely to turn off your prospective customers.
Thanks in part to an over-saturation of weed porn and of course constantly changing algorithms (Facebook, Instagram… who’s next?), there is a need for a robust strategy that can evolve.
Like most marketing strategies, this can seem like a ton of work and may not have your full attention.
So on that note, here are four easy ways to maximize your social presence and make social media marketing work for you (beyond weed porn and pot brownies).
Choose your platform(s).
You don’t need to be an expert at every channel. Pick the two or three channels where you know your audience hangs out and master them.
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the big three that you should know how to use strategically. There are other cannabis social channels such as MassRoots but they don’t have the impact and reach that the big three have, at least not yet.
Make sure your imagery matches your brand’s promise and is consistent.
From your logo to your profile name and picture, everything across your social channels should be instantly recognizable and represent your brand’s promise. Make sure you are following your branding guidelines and using the correct fonts and colors to design your pages and establish your brand.
Create engagement with valuable and shareable content.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of posting things that you and your employees like without really knowing if your audience feels the same way. Make sure you are creating content that your audience is excited about and eager to share. One of the easiest ways to determine what content your audience likes is by tracking the likes, comments, and shares on your posts and by watching what other successful brands within your niche are doing.
Engage with your followers by taking part in the discussion.
One of the quickest ways to create your tribe is to socialize your content. The easiest way to do this is to reach out to industry influencers and mention their names in your posts. Once you do that you can start to create a relationship with the key players in the industry and inspire them to connect with you and share your content.
Again, the content needs to be fresh, relevant and exciting.
Weed porn alone won’t cut it.
As a successful entrepreneur, longtime marijuana advocate and medical grower, Alexa Divett understands the unique needs of the cannabis industry. Alexa is the founder of Alexa Divett LLC, a business coaching and consulting company helping cannabis business owners achieve success through the implementation of sound business practices and time-tested marketing techniques.
Alexa’s achievements include co-founding Maya Media Collective, a Portland, Oregon-based creative firm that specializes in the cannabis industry, and writing the “Marijuana Millions” Ebook series, which The Weedblog called the best marijuana-branding book to date. Additionally, Alexa speaks about marketing and branding cannabis businesses at local and national events. Alexa’s products and presentations on starting and running successful cannabis businesses have made her an in-demand and innovative expert in the cannabis business world.
Guest Post: Marijuana Millions – The Road Map to Your Success, Part 2
How writing effective mission & vision statements can strengthen your cannabis brand
In order to ensure that your cannabusiness is successful both now and into the future, you will want to organize your business goals and objectives with a mission and vision statement. Essentially these two different statements form the foundation for your brand and business and will ensure that you stay aligned with your values and goals moving forward.
Each of these statements accomplishes a different objective but they are easily confused with each other. A mission statement describes what a company wants to do now while a vision statement outlines the company’s future goals.
What is a mission statement?
A mission statement focuses on the present and helps you define exactly what your customers expect from you while giving you clarity about the level of performance you need to be successful. It is the statement that brings your brand’s promise to life.
Your mission statement should clarify the purpose and values of your business as well as the responsibility your business has to your customers. Additionally, it should help you continue to define your Unique Selling Proposition by asking, “What do we do as a company and what makes us unique?”
Your mission statement is an important cornerstone of your brand for your employees as well. It helps you create a strategic plan that provides your employees with a clear guide on what they should do and how they should do it.
A mission statement should answer the following questions:
What do we do today?
For whom do we do it?
What is the benefit our product or service can provide to our customers?
What is a vision statement?
While the mission statement focuses on the present, the vision statement focuses on the future and should become a source of inspiration and motivation for you and your employees.
Your vision statement should be big and lofty and paint a clear picture of your organization and why it exists. In addition to describing the future of your business, your vision statement should also describe the industry that your company hopes to influence.
As you can imagine, a vision statement is incredibly important for the new and rapidly evolving cannabis industry.
A vision statement should answer the following questions:
What do we want to do going forward?
When do we want to do it?
How do we want to do it?
Where to start:
For startups such as new cannabusinesses, it is common for a vision statement to be created first as it may help guide the mission statement and the rest of your strategic road map.
For businesses that have been around for a while where the mission is clear, the mission statement may come first as it can help define the vision and the goals for the future.
Taking time to create a solid foundation for your business such as your Unique Selling Proposition as well as your mission and vision statements will help you create success in your cannabusiness and put you on the path to marijuana millions.
Alexa Divett is the Co-Founder and Marketing Director of Maya Media Collective (http://www.mayamc.com), a Portland, Oregon-based marketing and design firm that provides brand identity packages, marketing strategies and business coaching to marijuana business owners and entrepreneurs. Maya Media Collective has been a member of NCIA since January 2014. With over 14 years of experience in marketing, public relations and coaching, Alexa helps cannabusiness owners earn marijuana millions while uplifting the cannabis industry.
Guest Post: Marijuana Millions – The Road Map to Your Success, Part 1
At Maya Media Collective, we believe that the key to marijuana millions begins with knowing who you are and why you are unique, and then using this discovery to build your company’s brand and overall strategy for success.
The first step is to define your Unique Selling Proposition.
Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a marketing concept that is the foundation of your business and your brand. If the word “selling” turns you off, you can think of it as your Unique Market Proposition, or to make it more fun, your Unique Awesomeness.
Regardless of what you call it, it is imperative that you define it early on in your business.
Think of your USP as your reason for being.
Your USP is literally that which you propose to sell to your market that is unique from your competition. From the customer’s perspective it is the answer to the question, “Why should I do business with you?”
The USP should always come before your elevator speech and before your branding.
In fact, it is the driving force behind your branding, your niche, and your elevator speech.
Deciding on a USP Is One of the Most Important Decisions You Can Make About Your Business.
If you make your business stand apart from the crowd, everything you do will be easier. Customers will be easier to come by and they will happily spread the word about what you do because they love it.
On the other hand, if you don’t develop an effective USP, building an audience or getting any customers to pay attention to you will be a constant struggle.
How to Find Your Unique Selling Proposition
In order to find your USP, you must be willing to tap into your creativity and passions.
However, all the soul-searching in the world will not help you find your USP if you’re not willing to put your ideal customer first. At the end of the day, your USP is all about your ideal customer, and not about you at all.
In order to do this correctly, you must be willing to get out of your own way, start thinking about your perfect customer, and learn everything you can about him or her so you can target your approach to meet his or her needs.
Imagine your perfect customer and what would make them eager and excited to do business with you and spend their hard-earned dollars on your products and services.
Speaking of your products…
If you are a grower or processor in any of the western states such as Oregon, amazing products are NOT a USP. States like Oregon, Washington, California, and Colorado have had medical programs and access to seriously strong “high-grade” medicine for over a decade.
In places such as these, having the best product isn’t unique, it’s MANDATORY. Honestly, if you have anything less than the best, your business won’t make it through its first week of operation.
Remember, competition is fierce and you need more than the best product to be unique.
Instead of banking on your amazing product as your ticket to marijuana millions, think of becoming the best at something no one else is attempting.
You want to be able to confidently say, “Hey, at XYZ Company we’re all about X. We do things differently. If you’re into X come see us, we’re the only place where you can get it.”
Remember, You’re Not Trying To Appeal to Everyone
It’s easy to feel like you’ll be leaving out some potential customers when you start to narrowly define your USP. It’s a natural tendency to want to please everyone. Unfortunately in business when you try to please everyone, you generally wind up pleasing no one. When you connect more strongly with a particular audience, your influence can spread more quickly.
Be Unique, But Not For Its Own Sake
Being unique is an important marketing strategy, but beware of being unique for its own sake. Avoid the urge to come up with some catchy and unique just because it seems cool rather than because it’s something that the market truly wants.
Your USP only works when you’re addressing a specific market need. And it requires clarity. If your USP takes someone minutes or hours to understand, it probably won’t be effective.
Once You Have Developed Your USP…
Your job is to communicate it clearly and often.
A great business name, strong tagline, and professional design will bind everything together and put you on the path to marijuana millions.
Alexa Divett is the Co-Founder and Marketing Director of Maya Media Collective (http://www.mayamc.com), a Portland, Oregon-based marketing and design firm that provides brand identity packages, marketing strategies and business coaching to marijuana business owners and entrepreneurs. Maya Media Collective has been a member of NCIA since January 2014. With over 14 years of experience in marketing, public relations and coaching, Alexa helps cannabusiness owners earn marijuana millions while uplifting the cannabis industry.
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Hopefully by now you know the importance of building your brand’s presence on social media. However, there may be days when you ask yourself, “WTF am I doing?” 
Thanks in part to an over-saturation of weed porn and of course constantly changing algorithms (Facebook, Instagram… who’s next?), there is a need for a robust strategy that can evolve. 
As a successful entrepreneur, longtime marijuana advocate and medical grower, Alexa Divett understands the unique needs of the cannabis industry. Alexa is the founder of Alexa Divett LLC, a business coaching and consulting company helping cannabis business owners achieve success through the implementation of sound business practices and time-tested marketing techniques. 
