Louise McDonnell, Founder of SellOnSocial.Media
Louise McDonnell has been working in the area of Digital Marketing since 2009 and she has trained and coached over 14000 people on how to use social media as a marketing tool.
She has trained over 8000 online students over the last 12 months and runs LIVE training sessions every month through her online social media training platform, www.sellonsocial.media.
“I am passionate about social media and love to inspire an audience on the topic of social media marketing. I also have a great reputation for engaging the audience with rapid-fire Q&A sessions!”
She is an expert and passionate about social media marketing. In 2018 Louise launched her book, “Facebook Marketing, The Essential Guide” published by The Liffey Press.
The book is a full guide on how to use Facebook and it helps beginners to understand the platform, as well as advanced users that want to focus on strategy, creating sales funnels and using Facebook Ads effectively.
It’s full of practical examples of businesses and community groups succeeding with Facebook. There’s a case study section that features a hotel, leisure centre, butchers and deli, ladies boutique, online store, destination marketing group, and GAA (sporting) Club.
Louise enjoys speaking at events for business organisations and community groups about social media marketing, social selling, content marketing, Facebook & Instagram Ads and key trends/industry updates.
“I tailor my keynotes to suit my audience and have been described as being ‘inspiring’ and a ‘font of practical and valuable advice’.”
She has been a keynote speaker at the Innowave Summit Bulgaria, Social Media Summit Ireland, The Digital West Summit, The Wedding Band Association Annual Conference, the Women Inspire National Conference and Irish Wedding Association Conference.
Tell us about your current role and what you like about your career or areas of focus.
I've been working for myself since 2009. The decision to start my own business wasn’t really my own. I was made redundant at the height of the recession in 2009. It was about 6 months after I had returned from maternity leave having had my twins.
The position I had, it was a really nice role, lots of nice budgets to spend; lots of different opportunities to be creative with PR and I got fantastic results. Then I came back, and it was there's no money for SEO, there's no money for email marketing, there's no money to outsource, I took everything in the house. Although I understood how digital marketing worked, with no budget I needed to understand how to do it myself.
I remember my heart sinking to my toes when I was made redundant. It’s not a nice feeling at all. You feel like a failure - even though you know it’s not your fault. And to make matters worse. I was made redundant on my birthday! But there I was. I had two young children, a husband that was also self-employed and working in the construction sector and the cost of childcare was more than the mortgage!
But I rose to the challenge. I founded my own business and was pretty much busy from the get-go! I remember one day, one of the local development agencies in Ireland asked me if I would mind putting a course together for Facebook marketing. I said, yes, I’ll do it! The more I delivered it, the more demand here was and so what happened then is, I decided after a few years because I had so much expertise in the whole area of Facebook, that I would write a book on it.
The demand for my courses continued and then I decided I wanted to scale the business more. That is when I developed my online training and offerings.
I am the founder of an online training academy, which is called ‘SellOnSocial.media’. This is my focus at the moment. I have a programme called Social Media Academy where members can join monthly or annually. I deliver live training every month for my members. Two live training sessions per month, and a live group coaching session. Members have unlimited access to over 16 hours of training modules on my website.
This library of on-demand training covers the six core modules, which you'll find in my book, which are: Branding and positioning, Content Marketing, Understanding how algorithms work, and three modules on Facebook advertising. I also have lots of other training courses, most people do not get the strategy right. Get the strategy right and everything else will follow. The core modules help people create a strategy and even though the training I am talking about on Facebook and Instagram, it's equally applicable for any social media channel.
My focus is on growing my members and what I found during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the demand for online training. It has obviously really increased because there's no face to face training, and people that would have maybe resisted the notion of online training before are finding they actually like it, that they're saving themselves lots of time and money. They don't have to travel to locations to access training that they can access in their own time, at their own pace.
What inspires you, motivates you, helps you to make each day count?
I am creative, that's what I like to do, I create things.
I have come to realise that if I'm meeting a business. I love to hear where they are, where they want to go, and I will come up with an angle for them on how they should do that because that's how my brain works.
So sometimes I feel like I show people how to use social media, this is a page and this is an ad, but they might not be able to understand how to create a campaign or how to communicate a message through a campaign, or how to even structure that campaign.
And that's what I love doing what really motivates me and what I really find rewarding, is when my clients start getting results based on what I have advised them what to do. Their wins are also mine.
Outside of your professional work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I sing in a choir. It's a four-part choir called The Moy Singers, based in Ballina, Co. Mayo. So I've been singing in choirs since I was about eight years old.
I had to join the school choir for an event that was on, and I loved it so much. I asked my teacher who was also in charge of the local church choir if I could join. I’ve been singing in choirs ever since!
When it comes to your life chosen career is there a phrase, quote or saying that you really like?
I know a quote that I have used in my career. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” People think this when it comes to using social media that they don't need a plan.
Even when I'm delivering a training course I say to people, at a very simple level, write down five things you're going to do after this, and put a line through when you're done. It’s just a simple action list, but it can make the difference between making progress and not.
My answer resonates a lot with me because I think sometimes businesses have unrealistic expectations of what they're going to achieve from social media marketing, so they come to me and they say Louise I want you to help me and I ask “What do you want to achieve? What's your goal?”
Sometimes they struggle to identify the goal but if you don't know what you want to achieve, how can you put a campaign together?
What are you most proud of in your life?
The twins of course! And also my book.
The book is a culmination of all my years of experience training, coaching and working with businesses. It took so much work to distil it into a book.
It’s something I’m so proud of and as it focuses on the strategy it’s timeless. Facebook the platform may change, but the fundamentals of having your strategy in place will never change.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
I really believe we are all on a journey. We are how we are because of what we have experienced along the way.
But - advice I would have given to myself starting out would have been. Say no to projects that don’t help you achieve your goals. Stay focused and keep going!
Would you ever encourage creatives to work for free or do you fall into the everything must be paid and you must value your time?
It’s a tricky one. I firmly believe that people put a value on something based on what they pay. So if you don’t charge sometimes they don’t value it. However, in saying that I’ve volunteered to help many community organisations near me.
I’ve given my time freely to help causes I believe in. And I’ve helped lots of people out of difficult situations. Even when we volunteer our services for free - we are gaining experience and learning all the time. The trick is balancing it!
Have you ever got any advice from anybody that you think really stuck with you that really helped you on your journey?
Years ago a wise man said to me that respect is not offered by earned. It stuck in my head and I often think about those words. It applies a lot in terms of Social Media Marketing. If we want to build brand awareness and trust - we do it over time and we earn respect because of it.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work?
Love what you do. I do! When I sit down in my office I have no issue, wanting to work. My issue is when to stop. When I’m working time just flies. If I'm running a campaign for myself or a client, I love watching and seeing the results. I just find that so interesting.
I love training as well. I absolutely love training groups. I love when I have a group of 15 people come online, learning all about their businesses and giving them advice on what they need to do next. I just love doing this.
When you look at the future of social media, have you got any views on the whole social media landscape, in terms of its future?
For many people, during the COVID lockdown, social media provided a way to stayed connected with our loved ones. When we could not visit people we could still see them through social media content, video calls and messages.
The use of social media really increased during the months of the COVID-19 lockdown. Facebook announced that during the month of April 3 billion people accessed its platform (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp Messenger). That's just under half the people on the planet!
My mantra would be to see your social media channels like TV/Radio channels. Somewhere businesses can broadcast to reach customers and potential customers.
On Facebook and Instagram, people think sometimes that they are places where they can just use the ads and not work so hard on the content. The most successful campaigns use a combination of great content along with 1st, 2nd and 3rd level targeting to achieve success.
Facebook and Instagram platforms are so powerful. I like the fact that the most sophisticated targeting is available to the smallest business as well as the largest of businesses. I love that. I really love it about Facebook. You don't have to be this massive multinational with lots of money to use these platforms effectively.
Everything keeps changing but having a good strategy will never date. Setting goals, positioning your business, planning campaigns, using customer-focused content, and running effective ads to get the best results.
What is your favourite social media platform and why?
I suppose Facebook would still be my favourite because I have connections on Facebook.Facebook is a place where I go to connect with my friends and family at home and abroad.
I connect with them through Facebook. I think that's why Facebook still remains the dominant platform for many people. A lot of these connections people now have in their lives are through this one platform, that's very clever.
I also love the business functionality it offers to businesses and non-profit organisations. People carry their smartphones on their person - and they are actively checking their social media feed. This represents an opportunity to reach customers and potential customers, grow brand awareness and ultimately generate sales.
How do you network? What is your prefered way to network?
I love networking. I’m a member of lots of networks in Ireland and beyond. Network Mayo is a local women's network I’m part of. I’m also a member of my local Chamber of Commerce. Women’s Inspire Network is another active network which I can access online.
Do you think that after this long period of the offices being closed by the current situation, that the companies will realise that people can actually work from home?
Yes. I really think this is the next revolution! Employers can now see that their employees are happier, living where they want to live but still getting their work done. When they have a better work-life balance, they are happier and more productive.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Sometimes people have unrealistic expectations. Sometimes people come to me and they said well, I tried to sell this product and it didn't work. I ask, what did you do? They may have run one advert or the same advert for weeks, and that is it.
Sometimes people expect business to come through the door, immediately. I explain to them, that it takes somebody nine to eighteen times of hearing something before it resonates with thems. Publishing one post or running one advert, is not going to bring customers through your door.
When are you happiest?
When I’m with my family.
Have got any comments about the current situation in relation to COVID-19?
Our new reality does not have to be a bad one. Our world has changed. Brands that adapt will survive and grow. Those that don’t will lose out.