On Thursday, August 27, JCI Santa Clarita hosted “Mastering Your Social Media Presence,” a free training for local business owners, at 360 Suites in Stevenson Ranch. I helped organize the event as part of my involvement with JCI, and it was one of the better turnouts we have had.
Who led the training
Lindsay and Brian Schlick of SchlickArt led the session. They run a photography and brand studio here in Santa Clarita and have spent years helping local businesses figure out how they show up online. That local perspective mattered. The advice was not generic marketing theory. It was built for businesses operating in this valley, with this client base.
Should a small business try to sound polished on social media?
Not if polished means sounding like someone else. The first theme of the night was authenticity. Be true to yourself and true to your business. Owners often assume there is a professional voice they are supposed to adopt online, so they write in a register that does not sound like them, and it reads as stiff. Clients notice. The businesses that do this well sound the same online as they do in person.
How do you stay consistent with social media when you are busy running a business?
You need a plan, and you need to stick to it. Posting in bursts when inspiration strikes, then going quiet for six weeks, is the most common pattern and the least effective one. Deciding in advance what you will post, where, and how often turns social media from a recurring decision into a routine. A modest plan you follow beats an ambitious one you abandon in March.
What is the difference between a business account and an influencer account?
This was the idea that landed hardest in the room. An influencer’s job is reach. The bigger the audience, the better the outcome. A business is playing a different game. Your goal is not to reach as many people as possible, it is to reach the right people in the right way.
That distinction changes how you measure things. A post that reaches ten thousand strangers and produces nothing is worth less than a post that reaches forty local homeowners and starts one conversation. Once owners stop treating follower count as the scoreboard, the work gets simpler and the pressure eases considerably.
Thank you to Fred Arnold and 360 Suites
Events like this need a room, and Fred Arnold and 360 Suites gave us one. Fred has been a fixture in Santa Clarita’s business community for years, and his willingness to open the space made the evening possible. We are grateful.
Why we show up for this work
Financial North Partners is based here. Our clients live here, run businesses here, and raise families here. Community education is not a marketing exercise for us, it is part of how we participate in the place we work. Over the past year that has included financial literacy programming with local high school students through JCI’s “Get Real: Adulting 101,” leadership at the Santa Clarita LEAP Children’s Museum, and evenings like this one.
If you own a business in the Santa Clarita Valley and want to know about upcoming JCI Santa Clarita events, visit jcisantaclarita.org.
