Or, How to Get Followers in 30 Days.
Prior to Frisco Mo, social media was not a part of my mind set. I didn't use it. I didn't understand it. I had no interest in it. That changed once I decided to give Frisco Mo a go. If you're looking to grow a business beyond your family and friends, social media is a helpful tool. I decided to start with Instagram. Facebook was intimidating to me, Twitter, who cares and Snap Chat, I'm just too old. So for the month of September, 2017, my goal was to create one post a day for Instagram.
Have you ever seen an Instagram Influencer's post? If you haven't, here's a quick overview. They are always skinny, exceptionally beautiful, usually in some tropical locale, typically retouched and touting the perks of some product. They're also silly, expensive and really not conducive to a volleyball lifestyle brand. I look nothing like an Instagram Influencer. I am 50! (If you're a SNL fan please insert a Sally O'Malley kick here.) I don't live in a tropical locale and I couldn't imagine looking at a picture of myself long enough to retouch it. For the first month of Frisco Mo, I focused on content. Who wants to look at t-shirt designs all of the time in their feed? Not me! That said, I decided to develop some characters, find items around everyday life that related to volleyball terminology, use my photoshopping skills on those and then, pepper in some of my t-shirt designs. (Pepper - volleyball pun)
I started with the characters. Setter Buddha, Volleysaurus Rex, Wilson and Spalding. Setter Buddha was born of a statue we have in our yard. It looked like he was dumping a ball. Volleysaurus Rex is an old old dino toy of our boys. His tiny net was a gift the boys got their dad's desk. The Adventures of Wilson and Spalding came about because of my Hollywood obsession. Wilson is from Cast Away and Spalding, Caddyshack. I love writing the captions for all of those characters. (If you're looking for a laugh, visit @friscomovb on Instagram and read some of their captions. They still crack me up.)
Then came items of everyday life that related to volleyball. I went to the grocery store and took photos of products. The Crush The Ball 12 packs fooled a few people. They asked where they could buy that flavor. Funny. Then, I thought what around our home could make interesting content, Luke's birthday cake, an octopus in the water, a drawer of fruit. I carved a volleyball out of a grapefruit and used that as my first social media post, entitled, "I see volleyballs."
Turns out, if you want other people to see and share your posts, Instagram isn't the best, You can't share posts easily, you can't use live links in your posts and with 11 as the optimal number of hashtags, it was wearing me out. My friend Gina gave me the nudge I needed to get over to Facebook. My goal with the socials was for people to get to know me, Lisa, the voice of Frisco Mo. Two years later, here I am! Frisco Mo has nearly 3000 followers, VolleyGirl has just over 3500. Some of you I've gotten to know and see like regular humans do. Some of you I feel I know because of your ever kind and supportive posts. Social media remains an odd, unnatural thing. I prefer the old school, pick up the phone and gab method. But, I'm getting better. Each time I sit down to post, I pretend my screen is you and I'm talking story to an old friend.
