156: {Sassy Solo} Marketing on Social Media: 2026

Are you interested in starting, growing & scaling when it comes to social media? Then this one is for you! I break down my 3 part framework in this episode to set you up for success! 

Transcript

Caroline Pennington (00:01.614)
All right, in today's episode, I'm gonna talk all about everything you should be doing if you're ready to grow and scale online in 2026. Now is the time to start, do not wait till January. Okay, so if you're listening to this episode, I would highly encourage you to start your social media marketing journey now. And as someone, I've scaled on multiple platforms at this time, I did it organically.

both on Instagram and on LinkedIn. And here's my advice to you if you're interested in doing that too. And the same strategies work on Meta too. So whatever platform you choose as your platform of choice, start with one platform, get really good at it, and then start scaling and going to other platforms and doing the same thing. The same strategies work for all platforms, okay? And it's this. Number one, you have to stay consistent, okay?

That is the hardest part is staying consistent, but the consistency piece is what's gonna set you apart. And don't feel like, oh my gosh, I'm repeating myself. It's okay. Guess what people are consumed with themselves. So they're not sitting there thinking about like, oh, Caroline, I saw you post that exact same thing a month ago. It's okay to recycle content, okay? And my content, if you'll notice, you can go on a 12 week cycle.

and then repeat what actually works. So being consistent, number one. Number two, if you want engagement from other people, you need to give engagement. Now I'm not sitting here saying, sit there in the comments all day and be doing a hundred comments a day. Don't do that. But you need to start actively doing comments and that will compound. So I would highly suggest doing three to five comments a day because those comments don't go anywhere. So whoever you're commenting on,

comments will stay there and that will provide more visibility to your business or you if you're building a personal brand. All right, so start being consistent. Back to the consistency thing too. I would say whatever time or day you're deciding to show up, I would stay consistent on that. So for me, that's the mornings. I always post in the mornings both on Instagram and on LinkedIn. And that way,

Caroline Pennington (02:18.613)
your audience, start to condition them. start to look for your post. They start to know that you're gonna start showing up in the mornings. The mornings is my preference that worked for me. That was part of my stats online. That's when my audience was showing up to view and scroll. For you, it might be an afternoon or an evening and whatever that is, that is okay. And I would highly suggest too with your content, with scheduling it out.

You can do that actually in the app or you can do that via social media marketing website. Either one is fine, but start doing it when you show up every day and you show up at the same time, your audience starts to expect to see you and they actually want to see you. I can't tell you how many times. So I took a break actually from social media marketing for two weeks last year in December, same month.

And I had so many people in my DMs that were like, where did you go? Are you okay? Like it was so kind and so sweet. They were checking on me, but they were expecting to see me show up online. I just was taking a break, a social media breather, and that was okay too. And if you do decide to take a social media breather, that's okay. But just make sure you come back and don't let too much time pass by. For me, I took a two week break last year and that was good for me because I got to

Be present, spend more time with my family, enjoy the holidays, and that was all fine and good. I came back full blazing in January and that was okay. So be consistent, start engaging with other accounts. A strategy that I've used with engaging with other accounts is don't start with their super big accounts like the 100K plus people because your comments are gonna go to the bottom fast. Start with the micro influencers, okay?

So maybe they're in your industry and your niche and the more you start showing up for them in the comments, they most likely will turn around and show up for you too. When you start actively doing your content as well. Now they don't have to, of course, but the law of reciprocity exists in a very big way when it comes to social media marketing. And so I definitely wouldn't take that for granted. And also start using the DM function to use the DMs. I am not a fan of mini chat.

Caroline Pennington (04:38.293)
I think the DMs is where the magic happens. So definitely start DMing people who you're connecting with, who you're friends with, who come into your ecosystem. Now you don't have to write them a book or spend this whole time, but just greet them and tell them that you thank them for being here. That'll start to build trust and rapport with your audience from the very beginning. And I also would make sure that when you reach out for the first time, make sure you're just doing it to make a connection, not sell. Okay.

It is the biggest, most annoying thing when you get pitched out by someone in the DMs because it's like, excuse me, I don't know you. So no, I'm not gonna go without my credit card for you because you DM me. Okay. Let's connect first and then I'll think about buying whatever your products or services are. Okay. So consistency, start engaging with others. Number three, start using the DM function. Voice notes are really great in the DM functions because it lets people know

what type of energy you're giving off, what your personality is like, what you sound like. And those take literally like seconds. So we do have time for that. Okay. You do have time for that. So don't tell me you don't have time because you do have time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. And so I'm here to encourage you if you're interested in starting your personal brand or growing your business online, start now because now is the time.

People are seeking connection. They're seeking all of those things. So the perfection era is out. The Canva templates and like perfectly curated feed, they're done. They're all out. Like people want to connect with authentic humans and authentic businesses because at the end of the day, if you're growing your business, they're still doing business. They want to do business with you. So you have to show up and show up of what your business is about. What are your values? Who are you as a human?

How did you start the business? What inspired you? All the things. People wanna hear your story. So anyways, if you are interested in starting a personal brand or growing your business on social media, those are my tips for you today. So until next time, don't forget to subscribe and share.