Kassaundra 0:00

We've been talking about social media data all month long, and I knew I couldn't end our series without introducing you to Allison Krysl, a self proclaimed numbers nerd who's always ready to build a spreadsheet. She's a former elementary teacher who has always loved gathering information about what her students were learning to help her figure out what to teach next, and as she shifted into the online business world space, she realized her passion for helping people fall in love with numbers is needed here too. Nowadays she gets to partner with busy entrepreneurs to build spreadsheets, demystify data, and make numbers simple all so you are able to dig into your numbers and walk away with the information you need to make confident decisions.

Kassaundra 0:50

So teacher authors, go ahead and reheat that cup of coffee because I'm your host, Kassaundra Foster and we're about to get Schooled in Socials.

Kassaundra 1:01

Welcome back to Schooled in Socials . Today, I have Allison Krysl here with us. And for those of you who don't know, I actually partnered with Allison to create the amazing Post and Profit data tracker that is in my course. And so of course, I needed to have Allison come on and chat with all of you about data, because she is amazing when it comes to collecting and analyzing data for your business. So thank you so much Allison for joining me.

Allison 1:35

Thank you for having me. I'm very excited.

Kassaundra 1:38

So let's dive right in. My listeners know that keeping an eye on their social media data is super important, and that's something that I talk about all the time. But from your perspective, why is it so important to have a pulse on your social media data when it comes to your business overall?

Allison 2:00

I love this question. And I think starting here is just so helpful for the conversation, because if we kind of lose sight of the why of things, I think tracking data is a really easy thing that just feels like it's not really important, like, I'll get to it eventually, or, like, just didn't have time for it this week, this month, this quarter, whatever. Like, it's not that big of a deal, right? And so digging into like, well, why is this something that we actually encourage people to do is helpful, because then you're able to be like, oh, yeah, remember that one time that I was listening to that podcast, and it was like, oh, it's actually kind of minorly important, right? And I would say maybe even a little bit more than minorly, right? You are so awesome at just like, talking up the data and being like, you can actually use this to, like, make decisions easier. And I think that is just a huge part of why I love digging into numbers, is because ultimately, it's just there to help you make decisions easier and, like, just to cut out some of the pressure. Cut out some of the guesswork, for lack of a better term of trying to figure out, like, well, what should I be doing? And as I was thinking about this podcast and like, social media data, especially, I was just thinking about, if you are trying to use your social media platform to drive clients to your business in some way, shape or form, even if it's just like, into a freebie funnel. You want to know what's working and what isn't. Because if you aren't tracking that data, it's kind of like running ads for a product and not paying attention to like, if that product is actually bringing in any sales.

Kassaundra 3:36

100% agree with you there. Yeah. I think when I kind of first started on my journey as a social media manager, I knew that I wanted to be a big proponent of making social media marketing sustainable for people, because there's just so much, like, wild advice out there about, like, how much you should be posting and what you should be posting and what time you should be posting. And it's like, super overwhelming. And I was like, teachers and teacher sellers are, like, already super overwhelmed people as it is. So like, how can I make this as sustainable as possible for them? And that's when I was like, well, we don't need all of this, like guru advice if we just look at the data, because the data is going to tell you where you need to go next. Absolutely cutting down on that decision fatigue, especially as a business owner, and I know, like, a lot of my audience is still in the classroom, so, like, they're making a zillion decisions every day, right? And then to like, sit down and be like, What am I supposed to post on Instagram so that I drive traffic to my TPT store? That is completely overwhelming. So being able to just like, sit down and look at your data and say, This is what works and this is what I should do more of can cut down on that decision fatigue so much.

Allison 5:03

Absolutely, and I think that is one of the biggest reasons why, is just to help you out and to be able to have that confidence of like, okay, I'm going to do this because I've seen in the past that it's worked well, or it has, like, accomplished whatever I've been trying to accomplish, and so I'm just going to keep running with it, like, if it's not broke, don't fix it. And then another piece of the puzzle that I think numbers aren't always viewed as is they can also just help you cut through the emotions that come with social media. Because I think, like social media, it can feel like you're just kind of guessing. You're throwing things out there. One day, like you feel amazing. You had something go viral. It was great. And then other days you're just ready to, like, burn it to the ground, because you're like, nothing's working right, and not getting any bites yet you but actually being able to look at some concrete numbers and being able to be like, Oh, actually, like, this week is very normal for me, like things are going as they should is just helpful to not feel like you are like failing, or not feel like you are not measuring up, quote, unquote, to whatever the standard of social media is

Kassaundra 6:10

Being able to see those trends over time. Yes, so when this interview is going to come out, it will be October, and we are going to be getting close to the holiday season. And historically across Instagram, everyone sees a dip and engagement during this time, because just think about how crazy our lives get around the holidays, right? And to see that in your data and know that, and just like, for teachers to know, like, we're probably going to see a summer lull, right? Because teachers have checked out like they do not want to be thinking about their resources right now, but just being able, if you track that data, you can see that trend over time, and you can plan for it, and you can know about it, and then you don't have to feel like, Oh, nothing is working. This isn't working for me. Should I be doing this? You'll be able to know when those things historically are going to happen for you. And I think that's really important. And I think I do a monthly report every month for my clients, and it's really helpful for them to see those trends over time and to see things like, you know, maybe I only gained a few followers this month, but I actually reached a lot more people. Like my content was in front of a lot more people. Well, if that was your goal, like, you're doing great. Who cares if you added 50 new followers? If you got in front of like, a million people and that was your goal, then you're doing awesome. Or if your goal was to funnel people to your freebie, okay, so you didn't gain a lot of followers, but guess what? You had like, 200 link clicks this month, right? People were traveling to that so just being able to hone in on those trends and on your goals, and just being able to feel better about how your social media marketing is actually performing,

Allison 8:09

I think that's the biggest piece of like. Is it doing what you are wanting it to, and if it is fantastic, keep going.

Kassaundra 8:15

100%. So you collect a lot of numbers for people across the board for their business, lots of different marketing pieces. So how is collecting and analyzing social media data the same or different from collecting other numbers for your business?

Allison 8:35

It's a great question. This is my humble pitch of you shouldn't probably just be collecting social media numbers for your business, at least not like, all the time, right? Like, there might be a season where that's really your focus. But don't forget, there are other numbers out there, yes, but when we, when we think about like, social media numbers compared to other numbers, like, maybe it's just your financial numbers or your like, email marketing numbers or your freebie numbers. Specifically, when it comes to collecting the numbers, in theory, it's a very similar process, right? Because you are always wanting to collect numbers in a way that is helping gather information about your business. And I like to think of it as like about a specific section, or like question about your business. So like, if we dig into finances, gathering your like, revenue and expense numbers is helpful to just because you know it's good to know if your business is making money or not, generally speaking, like, that's kind of a good it's a good thing to know. But like, your bank account might not be the only place in your business where you can get that information, or it might not be giving you the whole picture, right. If you are on Teachers Pay Teachers, it might be helpful to look more specifically into like, Okay, well, which products are bringing in that revenue source? And this is something that I hear you talk about a lot in your podcast and in your socials, which is awesome, but just that idea of you want to make sure that you are looking and collecting and gathering that number that is connected to your goals, to help see if you're actually meeting the goal, and to help kind of as you work towards that goal, just give you information of this is going really well. I'm just going to ride it out through the quarter. Or like, ooh, this isn't working the way that I thought it was. Maybe I need to tweak something, change my goal up a little bit, or change some strategy around.

Because when it comes to social media data, I am gathering data for clients like I don't necessarily care about every single little data point. I care about the ones that align to where they're going. So if they're telling me that, hey, I'm launching something in the next six weeks, then I am looking to see that we have ramped up reach and engagement, right? I'm looking to see that we have done those things to set them up to be in the best position to launch as possible. Or if they're like, hey, I really want to focus on like, X topic, right? I'm honing in on those posts where we talked about that topic, so I know which ones are best performing. Just taking a look at your social media data isn't just to say, like, wow, I grew this much over the last three months, or, like, a million people saw my reels this month. Like, yes, that is great, but we're looking at the numbers to see what is working to help you get towards your big business goal. Like that is what I am most concerned with when I sit down to create content for my clients, it's like, what are you working towards? What are your big goals right now? What are you trying to accomplish in your business, in this quarter, in this year, and how is social media helping us do that?

Yes, everything you just said. And I think the tricky part with social media numbers is the really easy ones to track are your followers and your reach, because they are the ones that Instagram puts, like, right front and center, they make it easy to grab. And the data nerd in me, it kills me, yeah, because for a lot of the goals that entrepreneurs have and that TPT sellers have, your follower account is not always going to show you if you are actually like, going after that goal and succeeding with it. And the annoying thing with Instagram, and maybe, maybe, maybe one day, they'll make this easier. The unfortunate thing is, especially if you are starting to look at engagement, it is so time consuming. It's not so time consuming. But the downside to gathering those social media numbers is it is just much more of a manual process. You have to click into every post. And I, in my personal opinion, you have to put the information somewhere else. Meta tries they do to, like, give you a spot where you can see the information, where you can see the data points, but they don't give you all the numbers there. Or it's different. It's just kind of a hot mess, in my opinion. So I think that the unfortunate thing to social media number collecting is it works so much nicely to throw in a spreadsheet, an air table, a notion database someplace else, but that does require a little bit more manual effort compared to like Google Analytics on your website is going to be gathering so much more information that you could ever possibly wade through, but making it a lot more automated, instead of like the the manual, the clicks.

And this is exactly why, when I set out to create my course, I was like, I need to put together some sort of tracker that is going to be easy to use and is going to show you those trends. And I knew I needed help, so that's exactly why I came and found you, right? But that is one of the barriers when it comes to collecting your social media data, is it's not as nicely set up as some other marketing pieces in your business, like with Google Analytics or with your email marketing, potentially, there is some like digging that you need to do, and I think that's where people find it a little more difficult, and that's when we fall back on like the follower count and the reach, even though it's not connected to our goals, and so that's why I was like, I need something to break down this barrier, which what is that tracker that we built together? But yeah, I wish meta would put together better analytics, and maybe someday they will be listening to all of us, and that will happen, that will be my hope. But until then, if you want to get in on your social media analytics, that tracker and my course is amazing. Allison was phenomenal, helping me build that for sure.

I will say I am slightly biased, but after I terrified all of your listeners about how annoying it is, I do think that being able to have something in place that's already been created and then has your helpful like, walkthrough of this is how you do it. Once you know the drill, right, it does not take long. And I think the other piece of the puzzle that I love in what we created was you just being like, all right, Allison, here's the deal. I want something that people can plug in their goals, choose the numbers that link to that goal, and then those are the ones that show up on their quarterly reports, like right away. And I was like, that sounds amazing. And it was just so much fun to be able to create something that we can just have as that template. But then each individual TPT seller or teacherpreneur or whatever, whoever you are, is able to use it and then customize it for their own goals, right? But like it's so it's already set up. It's already created. You just have to choose a couple drop downs, and these beautiful graphs will populate everything. It's just you'll see the thumbnail for your ah, I love it.

If you are listening to this and you love geeking out with spreadsheets and things like that, you you need to get into the course and see the tracker, because it will make you so happy. Okay. Allison, so for those who are just starting out collecting their data, kind of like we were just talking about, if you're not already collecting your social media numbers, what are some systems and processes you would suggest putting in place?

Absolutely, I am going to steal a classic elementary ed phrase, but just the idea of starting slow to go fast. Yes, my encouragement would be, don't try to go art and, like, get the last five years of your social media data in one weekend. Like, probably don't do that. And also, just like, be really picky in the number that you choose to collect. Because I find often when people throw in the towel of, just like, I'm done, like, this numbers collecting thing isn't for me, is often because they're trying to do too much, and it just becomes overwhelming, instead of just starting with a couple of things and then adding them on, as you kind of have mastered those. So that's my biggest like, first piece of advice. Then, when it comes to, like, actual processes, I would highly recommend, like finding some way to get organized. How you enjoy staying organized? For me, that's a spreadsheet with color codes and fancy graphs and all that good stuff. If that sounds amazing to you, but you don't want to build it, go join the course, and it's there for you. But otherwise, like a spreadsheet, an air table, a notion database, a sticky notes, if you have to pen and paper if you really want to all that good stuff, but then actually, like, write it down on your calendar of something that you are going to do if you're not posting a lot on social media, like monthly, quarterly, that's perfectly fine when it comes to being consistent. And then I encourage clients and people that I work with to write out your steps, like, step by step, by step by step, like, what is the first thing that I do think of it as? Like, you're creating that SOP, which stands for

Standard Operating Procedure.

Thank you. Yes, like you would do for another part of your business, and just follow that until it becomes second nature and you don't pull up that document anymore, but that just will help cut through the overwhelm of like, dang it. I don't remember how to find this number. I don't remember what to do next. I don't remember, like, what I really need.

Then you're just not going to do it

Exactly.

And if you set yourself up for success by building in all those steps for yourself with your SOP and refining them over time. Guess what? When you are ready to have maybe a VA or someone else on your team, it's going to be super easy to hand off that data collection to them.

100% and you'll still be getting the same data and the same consistency, because they will know exactly what to do,

yes,

because you have it figured out.

I 100% agree with Alison. Start with your big business goal and think about what do I want to see my people doing on social media to get there, right? If you're working on growing, like, your email list. Okay, so, like, the first step is if I'm going to grow my email list through social media, I need more people to know who I am. I need a bigger reach. So maybe you just start by looking at your reach number, or if, like we were talking about, pushing more people towards your freebie once you have a bigger reach, in order to get on that list, that next step would be maybe link clicks, that they're going to go to your link and they're going to get it or comments on your posts where you're asking them to comment in order to get access to that resource. So just thinking about like, what do I want to see my people doing? Think about the first step they would need to take in order for you to make your big business goal happen. And just start by looking at that number and trying to increase that number.

Absolutely. And, like, stop paying attention to the rest of it.

Right, make it go away. Like, in the course, we focus on, like, the top three data points that are going to get you to your big business goal, and sure everything else is there for you too, and that tracker, if you want to take a peek at it, but those are your top three. Those show up at the top, and those are all you have to focus on. I think that really cuts down the overwhelm, especially for and I don't collect a lot of like other marketing data, I'm really kind of in the social media sphere, but there's so much data, so much that you can collect, and it can be very overwhelming, very quickly. So narrowing it down to what connects to your big business goal is definitely the way to get started. So I'll say for those people who might like still be on the fence about jumping in collecting their social media data for their business, what opportunities do you think they're risking or losing out on if they decide not to collect their social media data?

The first word I wrote down was tons.

I 100% agree with you there.

But I think I really bring it back to these three characteristics, almost, that you can add into your business, regardless of what goal you're working towards, or what numbers you're paying attention to, or whatever you are like focusing on. I think the opportunity is risking losing out on growing in clarity, direction, and confidence. Your numbers can bring you clarity, especially when we think of social media. It will just help you know, like, what's doing well in terms of content, what content is your audience gravitating towards, what's landing well, and then also like, one step further, you can also gain clarity with just like your caption writing, like is your caption, writing helping people move towards those call to actions. And even just the word like the text on your post / reels all that good stuff,

yes,

which then leads into, once you kind of have that clarity, you're able to have grow in your direction. You know, like, what direction to move your business in? You know, if you're moving towards your goals, you know, if you need to maybe tweak something, or even just change the goal a little bit of like, Hey, I don't think I'm gonna reach this. Like, this was maybe too large of a stretch. I'm just gonna bring it down this quarter, and then we'll work on it again. And then with all of that, like, you are just able to gain a lot of confidence in the decisions that you're making and yourself as a business owner, and I think ultimately your social media account, which I think will probably lead to even more sales, even more like leads, even more like whatever, because that confidence just will, like, start seeping through. Seeping is a bad word, but like, it will start oozing out, and people will be like, Oh, okay, this person knows what she's talking about. This person believes in the things that she has to offer. And, like, clearly, she knows me as her audience, as her potential buyer, right? And so then you are just able to, like, throwing it back to the very beginning of our conversation, like, not have to worry about all the emotional like ebbs and flows that come with riding the social media wave, and are just able to rest easy because, you know, like, No, I'm making these decisions because the numbers are backing up. Like these decisions make sense based on what I'm shooting for in my business, and I don't need to compare it. I think that's the other thing. You can stop comparing yourself to this, like, amazing person on social media who has like, you know, 10 million followers and makes this much money, and it's like, well, that's not my goal right now, because that's not where I am.

Right and I think once you have gained that clarity and the direction and the confidence, it becomes so much easier to actually sit down and create your content, and it makes your social media marketing feel easier.

Absolutely.

The more you look at your numbers, the more you can tune out all of the noise on social media, and you can hone in on where you're going and what you want to be accomplishing with your business. I think that's a big thing in the social media sphere, like we talked about a little bit earlier, there is so many people out there giving so much advice about what you should be doing, what you shouldn't be doing, what's trending, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and that makes it so overwhelming. But if you get down and take a look at your numbers and you see what's working and you find those trends, you can confidently move forward no matter what anyone else is saying, no matter what new feature Instagram rolls out. No matter how they tweak their algorithm, right? If you can look at the numbers and you can find those trends, and you can continue creating more content that is resonating with your audience and moving you towards your goals, social media marketing is going to be so much easier for you and hopefully enjoyable.

And take less time.

Yes, yes, right? None of us have enough time. So if we can do something, if we can front load and get a data habit in and work on that and make everything easier in the long run, that is the place to be, absolutely data all the way. I know, I know you share this love with me.

It's so good.

It's so good. All right, Allison, so thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find you if they want to learn more about what you do and how you can help them?

Yes, my instagram handle is hello_allisonkrysl. Super weird last name, but K, R, y, s, l, zero, vowels, super fun. I also have a website.

I can link it down in the show notes for you.

Excellent. It's linked down in the show notes. Yeah. And I actually have a freebie. So my freebie is, like, would pair super great, I think with your course, there's a whole section on social media numbers, but it's really just helping you kind of get at that thing that we were talking about. Of like, how can we pair your goals with a number? By thinking about what questions are you asking? Like, what questions do you want to know about your business? And therefore, what number should you pay attention to?

And if you want to know if this is the season where you should dive into your social media data, go and grab that freebie from Allison, because you'll be able to ask yourself those questions, and you'll be able to figure it out. And it is not going to hurt my feelings any if you realize that you should be looking at your email marketing numbers more than your social media numbers right now, because whatever you need to be looking at to make progress in your business is what I want for you, and I know social media is just a small part of that. So if you are questioning like, is this the season? Is this the right time that freebie is going to help you know where you need to go next?

So wise.

All right, thank you so much for joining us. Allison,

Thank you for having me.

Alright, cold coffee friends. Thanks so much for listening. If you're loving getting schooled in socials, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Also, I would love it if you left a review, so that other teacher authors like you can start getting schooled in socials too. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.