Is social media branding necessary for business, or tricky business? In this episode, Jackie is put in the hot seat by the one and only, Alex Wier.
We talk about:
⚡️Where most businesses get stuck with content
⚡️When it's a good idea to talk about paid advertising
⚡️How many TikTok dances it takes to get a new customer
Want to see an example of awesome social media?
Check out how the Social Team transformed VeryVera's platforms in less than one year!
Is social media branding necessary for business, or tricky business? In this episode, Jackie is put in the hot seat by the one and only, Alex Wier.
We talk about:
⚡️Where most businesses get stuck with content
⚡️When it's a good idea to talk about paid advertising
⚡️How many TikTok dances it takes to get a new customer
Want to see an example of awesome social media?
Check out how the Social Team transformed VeryVera's platforms in less than one year!
[00:00:02.120] - Alex
Welcome to another episode of the Weird Smart Podcast. I am your host, but only for this edition. Alex Wier, switching places temporarily with Jackie Rogers, who will be in the slot of guests for the first time on how you feel about that?
[00:00:17.250] - Jackie
I'm not nervous.
[00:00:18.730] - Alex
Today we're going to talk about social media. Jackie is our social media strategist who has vast experience all the way from the tips of the Rockies in Colorado. She has come to join us here to shed some light on on what social media can do for your business, some best practices and things like that.
[00:00:39.110] - Alex
So without further Ado, Jackie, let's get it on.
[00:00:43.170] - Jackie
Thank you for that.
[00:00:44.640] - Alex
You're welcome. So first thing I you know, if I'm a business of any size, especially like a small, small business, why should I consider investing in social media, especially versus other traditional media?
[00:01:02.780] - Jackie
That's a super good question to start off with.
[00:01:06.220] - Alex
Thank you. You wrote it?
[00:01:11.810] - Jackie
Yeah.
[00:01:13.080] - Jackie
So with social media, it's like with any kind of marketing, word of mouth is best. And over the last, what, 10-20 years social media really changed. It's free advertisement. It's a free way for you to get in touch with your customers. It's a good way to stay in touch and remove that fourth wall between your business and your audience. And now it's almost expected for businesses to have some kind of social presence so people know you're real.
[00:01:43.050] - Alex
Yeah. I mean, in some way, social media almost is like a word of mouth endorsement because it's more of a one to one exchange more even though it's virtual, more personal kind of thing than, say, a bill, Billboard or something you're going to see on TV.
[00:01:58.210]
Yeah.
[00:01:58.660] - Jackie
It's a nice way for people to see what else your business is about. If there's important causes or social issues that your business business participates in or tries or awareness is out. That's a really good way to draw in. And an audience who aligns with your vision.
[00:02:15.440] - Alex
Good answer.
[00:02:16.680] - Jackie
Thank you.
[00:02:19.680] - Alex
So how do you think in your vast expertise, expertise? Branded social media. How does that help build trust with, you know, a brand or businesses audience?
[00:02:34.660] - Jackie
Yeah. So branded social media. It doesn't mean like you have to have every post via graphic. It doesn't mean you have to have your logo on every post or anything like that. And I think that's where I've seen seen the most mistakes. The small businesses branded means means that your voice is the same stories, the same permissions, the same product service services you sell are the same and people just know what to expect from. So you you need to think of it like having having a story theme for your social media.
[00:03:03.800] - Jackie
You are consistent no matter where people drop it, whether it's today, whether it's six months from now, whether it's at six months ago, you're still using the same story.
[00:03:13.180] - Alex
Right. And even though there's a strategy behind social media and things like that, but just talking about branded and not constantly sort of of doing the same thing, there's a ton a term that the kids use these days to 30. Right. I think it's important. And you correct me if I'm wrong, that there's some organic conversation that that happens when the social media where not every post is just trying to tag someone, sell you something or something down your oh, yeah.
[00:03:44.190] - Jackie
And I think it's hard for people to get it, especially like small business. I've seen it in all sizes. Businesses, honestly, where I like you said, like the tagging or saving Thursday or like just trying to get attention. It's very obvious to users nowadays. They're very smart. They're they have been trained and raised in social media at some point. As long as you're out, then taken things that you are telling, you don't have to worry about what the algorithm is up to today. You don't have to worry, worry about the trendiest ticktock down as long as as you're telling things that are true to you true to your business, your business in a way that feels comfortable for you.
[00:04:21.860] - Jackie
That disease easy for your audience to digest. You're going to be able to build of really strong relationships that can lead to brand advocates.
[00:04:29.130] - Alex
Right. So, you know, again, all of those things that I just mentioned kind of tactics. I think people I feel like they need to deploy when they're trying to gain users, especially in a new account. But what are some of the things that are actually best best practices that people can do, you know, to that. But who's an audience to follow a new social media account?
[00:04:54.800] - Jackie
That's a really good question. I did not write that one. Okay. So with it depends on what kind of goal you are. Your goal is going to determine how your side on for social media, whether it's organic or whether it's paid. So if you're going for more followers, for instance, you need to have a plan for those as followers once you have them. It's not a vanity number to gain on your social media. For a lot of people, I feel like they're still seeing it that way.
[00:05:28.180] - Jackie
It's getting better. But when you gain a follower, they need to be doing doing something for you. So it's engaging with your community. It's is signing up for your newsletter. Buying a product is participating in a webinar. It's taking some kind of action that you prompt them to do.
[00:05:46.480] - Alex
But Conversely, you have to be delivering some some value to them in order for them to to care about what it is. You have the same for first place.
[00:05:55.930] - Jackie
Yeah, absolutely. It's not going to be like a post like, hey, guys, I'm selling a thing today. Come by from me. No one's going to do that shit. People will come to you when they feel like they are being they're being talked with. It's a conversation between you and the follower who comes into your comments. You know, it's maybe an idea that resonated with them when they found out that I'm I'm just pulling from somebody that I follow. Like, they're very good at talking about feminist issues and like women raising, raising money for themselves and how to actually build well.
[00:06:31.600] - Jackie
And she does it in ways that resonate with in the target audience that she's talking to. So, like younger, younger women who maybe don't haven't had an education, education and how to make money, then self up or not make money. But I invest or plan for retirement or things like that like he talks about maybe things that she's trying to sell in a fun way.
[00:06:55.270] - Alex
Right. But in the context again, of offering something of worth and not just just no one wants to see a post. It just says, I love these shoes from a stand shoes.
[00:07:06.480] - Jackie
No, it has to be an actual conversation.
[00:07:09.100] - Speaker 3
I feel like people some people are good at conversation.
[00:07:13.060] - Jackie
I'm not obviously because I set her on my own show.
[00:07:19.630] - Speaker 3
But it's a conversation.
[00:07:21.650] - Jackie
You know, it's it's not just like a compliment. Like you said, it's not just like a thumbs up. It's adding value to any conversation nation that you see. So if you see an idea that you agree with her, it's disagree with you can share that. And then you get feedback from people who are, like in those comments and giving you these ideas.
[00:07:38.740] - Speaker 3
And then you take that feedback.
[00:07:40.370] - Jackie
And maybe it's something that you apply to the marketing campaign later on.
[00:07:44.370] - Alex
Right. One of the things that I'm very interested in the social media because my understanding is very limited of it. You and said, Chris, for more expert in this, especially with your background, is, you know, everyone will get just what we would call an order and organic social media thing and think that I'm just going to begin and social media and this is going to improve my business. And that does to some degree. And there's is a lot a lot to be said about organically attracting people.
[00:08:13.140] - Alex
But there's this whole other side of social where you are basically basically super charging things and targeting things and being more more strategic about it. It also costs money to that is paid. So if you would for our audience and from a very high level, explain it to me like, I'm stupid because I'm not the smart part of this podcast. What is the difference between paid and organ organic and kind of what are the the best things about? Yeah.
[00:08:42.360] - Jackie
So I'll start with organic because this is where everybody everybody should start. I would never recommend paid for anybody who doesn't who doesn't have an organic following that isn't coming coming in and helping their bottom line in some way. Organic is great because it's real people to engage with your business, who have opinions and voices and ideas and have conversations. I generally actually interested generally actually interested. They are not bought. They are people who are probably your target, not just your target auto audience, but your ideal client.
[00:09:19.060] - Jackie
So if you have, like, a a top fan or something, you can really use them as like an avatar for whatever, but really pay attention to people who are coming on to your pages, who are engaging things that they're saying, the things that clicking they're on and you can pay attention to inside to see their top engagement for for the days that they come in most. I'm I'm going not so high level with organic. I just realized I'm going to switch to page.
[00:09:47.290] - Alex
Go ahead. I think we would all like that.
[00:09:50.090] - Jackie
Jackie, thank you. So paid social media media is when you get targeted by an ad, it's it's like you think of something.
[00:09:59.720] - Alex
You kind of saw something or say the word stand shoes use in conversation with you. And then I'll and all of a sudden pops up on Instagram. It's stay in front of so many shoes.
[00:10:11.370] - Jackie
That's right. So it's true. Alex is listening.
[00:10:14.730] - Alex
It's a little creepy peak, but I've always thought of it, too, in terms. I'm not talking about Q level clearance, anything like that on my phone. I'm not into any nefarious stuff. So generally, if I'm I'm searching for a good pair of shoes and the Internet serves me up some options. So I actually think that that's kind of helpful.
[00:10:41.760] - Speaker 3
Yeah, it is.
[00:10:43.410] - Jackie
And I go back to knowing who your followers are and your target audience, because when you switch, switch to paid ads, you can build custom audiences based off of where they are, what their likes are, what their behaviors are with your pages, and you can. You can serve them like you said something. Something that they want to see. Ads don't have to be a problem. And I feel like like some business owners feel like it's a waste of but money. That's just because the strategy is off.
[00:11:12.400] - Jackie
Something can can be be tweaked. So that way, it's actually valuable to your users and to your business.
[00:11:15.990] - Alex
Right? Because as the robot says, this thing is all about feminism and finance. Who would love this? Jackie?
[00:11:23.780] - Jackie
Exactly. They don't know my name, but they see quick.
[00:11:28.720] - Alex
You know what a lot can I take a little side in the broadcast? You have cuss twice on this and I have custody, which means you are setting some type of a massive record that I either will or we're were not not make up for down the stretch. So I'm sorry. I didn't mean to the grass.
[00:11:44.960] - Jackie
It's okay. Chris is going to cut this out anyhow and one on what you're talking about.
[00:11:52.300] - Alex
Anyway. You were saying the robot does not know your name. I think this is an important part to you, right? Because there is a thing of you are just numbers in the AI advertising matrix, and it's not actually targeted at the person targeted at a person's tendencies.
[00:12:11.990] - Jackie
Exactly. And something to bring up to is the iOS update. That's something that really scares small businesses. When the announcement came out. It's basically Apple is putting restrictions on how you users are being tracked and how Facebook can track. And it caused, like, some a little bit of disrupt about how ads are going to be done from now on. But it's a good thing because it gives you users the option to be tracked or not track. Now advertisers have to really know the audience really know, like the website behaviors to be able to to retarget anybody who interacts with, like with a sale or with a website with a company.
[00:12:53.110] - Jackie
So it gives people a little bit more freedom that way. Next time you think of a cat or some gift you want to get for Daniel Stewart stand shoes, it's not going to pop up in your feed right away. Take a minute.
[00:13:08.440] - Alex
To that in. I've always been just looking at what you guys. What do we do here? Kind of impressed with the bang for the buck that you get with social compared with with a traditional media spin, you can really hyper target. You can really get a ton of impressions and some pretty good. You can generate some behavior that you want for kind of pennies on the dollar.
[00:13:32.490] - Speaker 3
It's true.
[00:13:33.740] - Jackie
Yeah. And something to remember, like when you're doing your social post or anything, it takes time, time for people to take action on it. They have to see it a few times and they have to feel like the posts for that something I learned a long time ago. You have to talk to people where they're at I sometimes you like touch and they're ready to buy other times they don't even know that they need you. They may not even know who you are, and they don't know that you're perfect for them yet.
[00:14:01.200] - Jackie
So you have to be mindful of these stories when you're putting them out, like, is it driving awareness about my business? Am I talking to to someone brand new? Am I talking to someone who's been following me for a while and maybe haven't bought yet? Am I talking to somebody who buys for me all the time? So these are kind of conversations that you can cycle in and out of your social media media strategy. Right.
[00:14:24.020] - Alex
And I think that's one thing that paid does very well. Like, I just general advertising is, hey, I do a thing. They're probably all kinds of people out there, like site Chris, that would want to know about it, but they just don't know that we exist, exist, and social is a good way to target people that you you really think are going to be like, these people are going to have a higher propensity to me to kind of like what we do, and then I'm generally unless you're wrong about your audience.
[00:14:48.960] - Alex
You know, stand shoes is putting stand shoes in front in front of me, knowing that I have a high likelihood to enjoy the thing that I'm getting. I'm not getting served a bunch of stuff that's outside of my interest.
[00:15:02.470] - Jackie
Exactly. And that's also part of smart smart marketing. Now you have to know your audience so well and know exactly what is best for them. What's good for them, what, what they're they want to see that if they get something really, really well and then you don't spend a lot of money on on AdSense, you don't have to burn through it.
[00:15:20.640] - Alex
Understanding your audience would be a good podcast, because if you didn't do that, did you already do that one? Did I miss that one?
[00:15:29.390] - Jackie
No, you didn't. But okay, good. That's a great one to me. Thinking.
[00:15:34.620] - Alex
Okay, well, that was very informative to me. I know repeatedly ask these questions to you, and I hope everybody listening out there I with was able to glean a couple of Nuggets of knowledge from that social conversation. You have anything to add? Anything you feel like we missed?
[00:15:49.740] - Jackie
No. So sorry for setting, but I didn't hear it. Thank you.
[00:15:55.140] - Alex
You know what? Fucking do it again. Alright, y'all thank you so much for tuning in to this latest edition of the Weird Smart Podcast. I am your temporary host, Alex Square, who probably will not be returning to to the seat after my performance. The next time you hear from us, Jackie will be back behind the steering wheel.
[00:16:16.800] - Jackie
Exciting.
[00:16:17.920] - Alex
Alright. Until next time, everyone. Thank you.