We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anneke Odendaal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anneke below.

Anneke, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I had the idea for Pink Sparrow Social while I was managing the social media for a wellness company and initially it was going to be a Social media management company. I started out building clients through networking and cold calls and I offered a short trial window to prove my worth. This worked well and within a year of starting Pink Sparrow, I had built up my client base and was in the process of hiring some employees to help support the growing workload. But then Covid hit and everything changed. Most of my clients had to put their social media services on hold due to being temporarily closed and that’s when Pink Sparrow Social went from being a social media management company to a coaching business where I provide products and services that teach businesses how to build their socials themselves.
I spent 2 months researching what content was performing best and created an E-book and other online services, along with a 30-day strategy to help grow my following. I knew the plan would work but I was still blown away by the results. I went from under 1000 followers to over 10k inside the first 30 days and that growth continued, reaching 100k followers in 90 days. This influx in followers helped bring in a steady income and this allowed me to focus my time on creating an online course that teaches business owners how to use the Reels function on Instagram to build their business. The course has over 100 students now and the income has supported me through the birth of my first child (now 7 months old) and I am currently enjoying the flexibility of working from home and in the process of creating more products and services that Pink Sparrow can offer.

Anneke, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was drawn to social media while I was studying business marketing at university. I had realised that social media and online businesses offer the opportunity to design the lifestyle you desire along side your business. I had watched my parents work really hard as I was growing up – they moved from South Africa to Australia to provide a better life for us. We had a great childhood growing up and while they always provided for us, I could see that the traditional 9-5 work system was reasonably restrictive and my parents had to sacrifice a lot for us kids. I wanted to build a career that could provide a high income that wouldn’t sacrifice lifestyle – for me a good career included flexibility in WHERE I worked and WHEN I worked. So out of University I initially focused on building clients to manage their social media which then evolved into coaching clients and providing products/services that help business grow on social media. Most businesses don’t know where to start when it comes to growing on social media and how best to turn their views/followers into sales. I make this challenge the main focus of my free content and then provide paid content and offer services for the business looking to take themselves from beginners/intermediate to a real force on social media. Now Pink Sparrow is reaching millions of people monthly and I’m proud knowing that I can provide an income for my family while I am helping others do the same.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pink Sparrow Social was initial a social media management company. I had built up my client base to the point of being overwhelmed by the workload and was in the process of hiring some employees to help support the growth of the company. But then Covid hit and everything changed. Nearly all of my clients had to postpone my services as their business had been closed – nearly all my clients were located in Melbourne Australia – which had the not so prestigious title of being the most locked-down city in the world so businesses were put under a lot of financial strain. I didn’t know how long it would be until I got my clients back and this experience made me ask the question of how resilient my business was. I decided it was time to pivot and change my business model from managing social for clients to a coaching model where I provide products and services that teach businesses how to build and manage their social media themselves. This change made a huge difference in my business. Before I had a limit of how much money I could earn based on the amount of workable hours I had in the week. Once the online products were developed, I was able to leverage the hours invested in product creation and was able to generate a larger income by focusing all my time in getting more views on my socials/website. I can certainly say that this change in business strategy has created more stability and more flexibility than if I was still managing social media for clients.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I first decided what type of audience I wanted to attract (what niche I wanted my brand to be in) – I chose to focus on small to medium business owners and started to create content that would appeal to this group. I knew that the best way to start out was to offer a lot of value and to be consistent so I made a 30 day content strategy to increase engagement and build followers. I basically followed this approach on repeat, readjusting every month, from an account that had under 1000 followers, to an account which today has over 200k. I advise people who are just starting out to make sure they get the basics right from the start, be authentic and most of all – be consistent. Most that struggle aren’t doing the basics properly or are so inconsistent that they aren’t sticking with it long enough to see the results. I initially didn’t see much growth for about 3 weeks even though I was posting every day and was very engaged with comments and direct messages. Then suddenly one day it’s like it all came together and I was gaining 200+ followers per day. For those who are just starting out, I recommend they get my E-book – Reels 101 which contains all the information needed for someone who is new to Reels/Instagram to get started and avoid making the common beginner mistakes.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pinksparrowsocial.com.au
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pinksparrowsocial/

Image Credits
Sharne from Aria Photography