Jen Lehner is a digital marketing strategist, and she creates online courses that teaches entrepreneurs how to use social media and digital tools to grow their businesses. She lives in  Shaker Heights, Ohio  with her husband, three children, and golden retriever.

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In this episode you’ll learn:

• • The first time you do something, it might fail or not be perfect
  • It’s okay for your business to change
  • How to best utilize Twitter
  • How to grow your Twitter followers

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Tell us a little bit about you, Jen Lehner, and what you do.

I started in consulting and sharing with local businesses how to use social media. I was doing some social media management for businesses. I quickly grew tired of trading the dollars for hours, and just a year ago, I started creating online courses. My online courses do the same thing. They teach entrepreneurs how to use social media and digital tools to grow their business. Now I can reach a lot more people than I could before.

Can you share how you mean to that what we call “leap” of being an entrepreneur?

I started in a nonprofit company. Fifteen years later, I became a mom. I decided to stay home with the kids. I have always been interested in technology, social media, and tools. I liked to do bulletin boards in my kids’ class or websites for my kids’ teachers. I helped two women in Mississippi grow a farmer’s market with two vendors into the largest farmer’s market in the state. Our use of social media and email service helped us to do that because there was a constant contact and those are what we use.

It was always little projects like that. People started asking me to help them with their projects. I then realized I wanted to do something with this so I went to someone who had a local business. I said, If I create your website and do all your marketing for a certain amount of time, I would do that for free if you would just give me a great testimony and tell your friends about me and let me use this portfolio. She agreed and that was the end of that.

One thing led to another. I was never really had a market myself in terms of business, and I had a four-month waiting list of clients. I started my company called Personal Line Group (PLC). I didn’t have any idea what it was going to be. I just went in with the idea and decided to try something out. Even when I was booked with clients, I knew that wasn’t still the thing. I had to go through many reiterations before I could finally say that this is the thing. I definitely ended up to something I didn’t expect myself to end.

I don’t want to call you a Twitter lady, but I’m kind of calling you a Twitter lady. How did you get into Twitter and get to leading an online course and focus on that?

It is funny because Twitter was the last social channel that I mastered. It may seem so pointless that you would want a channel that would limit you to 140 characters and you can’t read every single tweet because tweets are flying a million miles an hour. I can’t seem to understand why people would want that when we could just go to Facebook and write pages and pages and upload pictures and videos. I never understood that but when I got it, it made a huge shift. I thought I could teach Twitter because of what it did to my business and what I was able to use it for.

Basically, the deal with Twitter is that it is the most open platform of all the platforms. What does it mean? It means that you don’t have to be following someone and they don’t have to be following you. Neither of you has to follow each other just to communicate to each other. If I have just read a cookbook that I love or I have a question about the recipe, I can send a tweet. I can send a tweet to anyone. I can tweet to them and they can potentially see my message. Most people actually read their tweets even though they do not respond and that opens up a huge opportunity for each and every one of us.

A tweet is like a carrier pigeon where you can attach something that matters to you and people are going to see and read it. What I saw and still continue to see is that there are things that you can do with Twitter, the small things that you can do that create a huge impact for free. People are using Twitter, but the tactics or the strategies that I have discovered inside the Twitter are what they don’t know. I have to tell them about it  and so I started running my mouth to anyone who would listen. I would always say, “You got to do this,” and people started listening and they wanted to know more. When I tell people these tactics, they become interested to something else that I have.

I have read that you should have a picture when you are tweeting out blog posts or content for the first time. Is that true?

I have been saying that for a long time. First of all, they look beautiful and are attention getting. I think what’s happening now is that you can notice that everything seems to have a picture. It makes me notice those that have only text and they just kind of popping out of me. I recently heard about this guy whose research said you actually have more engagement without a picture. I’m currently using images on all my tweets because they are fun to see but I can’t say that I am certain that you’re getting more engagement when using a picture.

Do you think there is a formula for sharing other people’s content vs. putting out your own content on Twitter?

I don’t have a percentage for you. In my case, it is like 30% other people’s content.  I think it depends on where you are in your business. A lot of people just don’t have a lot of content yet. I suggest to those who are just starting out, go to Canva and create one image that is formatted for Twitter. Make sure that you have a logo and URL and duplicate it for 25 times. In every of those cards, put a different quote. Put a different color in your brand to have a different look and do the same thing and this time put 25 tips.

That’s 50 pieces of content right there. You get so much engagement  from quotes.

What is the best way to grow your followers?

Just continue to wow people and hit them over the head with fabulous content. Try your best to do that consistently. If you don’t have the time to create the content everyday, it really helps to batch it and disseminate it out to the world through Meet Edgar, for example. It is also keeping your head down and blinds are on because it is easy to  get distracted by what other people are doing. It’s easy to say, “You do it so well, why would I even bother? They are so much farther than me and I will never going to be that good.” Those thoughts hit everyone. The world is so noisy especially on Pinterest and Instagram, and it so easy to get discouraged. You just have to get your head down in creating that great content.

Every single social media that you have or you are on, you have to treat your profile as seriously as you treat your resume. In the online world, that profile is your resume and it is what you are wearing in an interview. Upload a picture, put some photos in your summary, tell a story through the first person point of view. Make it interesting.

Jen Lehner is a social media marketing strategist. She combines her digital and marketing skills. Jen helps client by offering group training courses online and one one on coaching sessions via Skype.  She love bing able to break things down for people in a  way that is SIMPLE to understand.

Find Jen!
Website: jenlehner.com
Instagram: @jen_lehner
Twitter: @jenrgy
Facebook: Jen Lehner

RESOURCES:

Bird Nerds: Twitter Training.
Free Online Classroom.
How to Create Twitter Lead Cards.

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