Overcoming Social Media Challenges with Karen Cureton: Tips for Authentic Engagement

In this episode of 'Your Dream Business Podcast,' I talked with Karen Cureton, a multi-award-winning social media trainer and speaker. We tackled the common dilemmas businesses face with social media, from engaging effectively to overcoming the fear of visibility. Karen shared her journey from corporate sales to helping women in business grow their social media presence, demystifying the process with actionable strategies. Tune in for insightful tips on building relationships online, maintaining authenticity, and consistently engaging your audience for business growth.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST Overcoming the Fear of Visibility: Karen shared practical tips on how to conquer the fear of being seen online and why embracing authenticity is crucial for building trust with your audience. Building Relationships Through Engagement: The importance of genuine, consistent interaction on social media was emphasized as a way to foster meaningful connections and grow your business. Simplifying Social Media Strategies: Karen broke down actionable steps to demystify social media, making it easier for businesses to create a strong online presence and maintain consistency.   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Karen Cureton on LinkedIn, Website, Facebook, Instagram Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter   Transcript If you are in business, you know that social media is something that we have to do. Some of you might love it, and some of you might think it's a necessary evil, something that we have to do. And some of you might feel like you're not doing it at all, and you really should be. But you might be thinking, why do I go to all that effort of putting all those posts out when it's just tumbleweed? And people talk about getting clients from social media, but it's never really happened for you. Well, today's guest is addressing all of those things. How do you show up where you actually do engage with your potential customers and turn them into clients? Hello, and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? I always love it when I can bring you guests that I know really well and today's guest is no exception. Karen Cureton has been working with me for the past 12 months. She's actually been in my world a very long time as a voyeur and a lurker which you will hear more about people lurking on social media and she's watched me for quite some time and about 12 months ago she started working with me and it's just been an absolute pleasure to work with her. And as you'll hear in the interview, one of the things that I talk about is that I encourage everyone [00:02:00] I work with to increase their visibility by getting on podcasts, by putting themselves in front of other people's audiences and putting themselves out there. And Karen obviously came to me and said, well, could I come on your podcast? And I was like, of course you can. So it's really lovely to have Karen come and join us today. Karen is a multi award winning social media trainer and speaker, and she works with women in business to inspire them to grow through being visible on social media. She is not your typical social media trainer. She is an ex pat Geordie with over 20 years experience in corporate sales. But for the last decade, she's focused on helping women in business navigate the social media maze, where she is passionate about ditching the jargon and creating a safe space to learn. Karen has a program called Social Media for Grown Ups because as Karen shares in this episode, she was not of an era where she grew up with the internet and therefore her passion lies in helping other women and people who have had the say, where social media [00:03:00] isn't second nature, isn't something that they grew up with, and help them demystify what it is like and get on it. We have such a cool conversation with some really good actionable takeaways for you. So at the end of this episode, I summarize some of those actionable takeaways, but we're talking about how to show up, how to get engagement, how to be proactive with your engagement and how to feel. like a real human being when you're on social media and how to come across as a real human being so that the people you're trying to interact with know that and they know that you're not some spammy horrible salesperson who's just trying to jump in their DMs and irritate them, which we've all probably had experience of. Well, I certainly have had loads of it, but most of all, it was just a really lovely chat and so lovely to bring it to the podcast. So without further ado, here is The Awesome Karen. Karen, a really warm welcome to the podcast. How are you doing? Karen: I'm really good. Thank you. The sun is actually shining, so I'm happy. I'm [00:04:00] happy. Teresa: Actually, you're not wrong. It's, it's a little bit, a little bit blue sky here. Obviously, if you're listening to this and you're not British, then you might find it weird that we just immediately talk about the weather, but that is obviously our MO, like, you know, we talk about weather. Karen, you have been in my world for some time, which is lovely. And What was super interesting was we, one of the things I do with my students and clients is we talk about visibility and it's what happens whenever I teach people the visibility strategy of getting in front of other people's audiences, they then get really nervous to approach me because I've taught it and you sent me. In fact, you had heard someone I'd interviewed and you were like, I'm never gonna ask to come on the podcast, didn't you? Karen: Yeah, true. Teresa: But you did it and you're here, which is great. I, because Karen: no, I message to you and said, I'm putting my big girl's pants on and I'm gonna apply. Teresa: Yes. And look what happened. So Karen: there you go. Teresa: If someone is sat there thinking, oh, I'm too scared to do that, [00:05:00] just do it. You just never, never know. And actually, I. Love what you do. And obviously, I've been watching what you do for some time and even in my world for some time. And I think lots of people are going to resonate with this conversation. We are talking about social media, but you come at it from a different angle. Now, obviously, if someone's listening to this, they can't see you, Karen. So maybe let's start with why you come at the angle you come at. Karen: Well, I come at the angle I come at because I didn't grow up with the internet. I am a woman who grew up, I don't even want to say what decade, that's really scary. But I grew up, didn't grow up with the internet. I grew up when my old boss used to send me faxes on a Sunday night with my reports and stuff like that. So I came to social media, I was still a really early adopter. I was on Twitter, God forbid that, Ooh, don't get me started on that, but Twitter was where I very first started [00:06:00] because I was in a sales role. I was sales director for a national house builder. Absolutely loved what I did and then was stupid enough to have a kid, you know, who does that? And then I started looking at, I didn't want to go back into the corporate world and I thought how can I attract new clients? Because I didn't have a big budget, I didn't have lots of money and I came at it from a perspective of, do you know what it is? everything that I've learned about selling high end properties. which is where I worked. It was about building relationships and social media is exactly that. People forget,