The theory of marketing relativity podcast.

Jess
Hello, and welcome

to The Theory of Marketing Relativity Podcast. I'm Jess Burton, a marketing specialist here at Epic Marketing Consultants Corporation. Let's talk all things marketing and merchandising with our Epic team. Hello, Amy, welcome back to the podcast.

Amy
Thanks for having me again, I am super pumped.

Jess
No problem. I figured we could pick up where we left off talking about all of the social media platforms. We talked about best practices, but I kind of wanted to dig into how to be like, present on all of those platforms, not necessarily, you know, just posting and stuff but like how to actually get like, a good I'll use a business term because I had to learn how to use business terms, how to get like a good ROI on your social media platforms.

Amy
Right? It's more than just posting, it's building those relationships with other people which is like the key point that'll A lot of people miss with social media.

Jess
Absolutely. Oh my gosh, I get so excited when I'm like, Oh, I love taking pictures. And I love like actually like taking good pictures. I get so excited when I post something and I'm like oh my god like 18 people liked it. Meanwhile, I'm like looking at like the Instagram profiles of like, teenagers that I teach. And I'm like, Oh my god, how do you have 407 likes on a picture of your breakfast toast? Like?

Amy
Well, I mean, it's also easier for them to get more likes, because they also have more in person connections as well. So I think that's the big point with doing things on social media. It's the same as doing things in real life. Like you can't have a social digital relationship with someone when you only check in every once in a while. You got to check in with more people, so they like your pictures.

Jess
That is very true. Maybe that's why like my LinkedIn connections are like 12 because I like I forget that it's an app on my phone. I'm like, Oh, I should check this. And then LinkedIn will send me an email saying like, since the last time you've been on this is everything is happened. I'm like, Oh, I meant to check that more.

Amy
See, I've gotten to the point in my life where I check LinkedIn more often than I check Facebook, because I find its content more refreshing and less frustrating. I cannot tell you how many times I've almost unfriended my own mother for like, just the stupid stuff that she posts on Facebook and I am just so over it. And I feel like a lot of people in the millennial generation are kind of over a lot of that stuff. But it's kind of funny how each, you've seen the memes, I'm sure where each different platform has a different profile picture, and how it kind of relates to the different topical conversations and how you're supposed to behave on each of the different platforms.

Jess
Yes, oh my gosh, I have to pause for a minute. What are you wearing on your wrist?

Amy
So the COVID-19 quarantine added a couple of COVID-19 pounds to my frane and I've been trying to get back in shape slowly and becase, you know, I'm a slacker in that area. So I started walking and I started doing a bunch of stuff and I saw a bunch of improvements. So I was like, yea, and then my boyfriend was like, you gotta do something about your arms. Like in a nice way in a very nice way. And I don't like lift heavy things. So I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to go and buy a little one pound arm weight from Amazon send you a link if you want them. And so now I just wear them while I do anything. So like when I do the dishes for when I am working, and it helps me work out my arms a little bit.

Jess
I love that idea. I'm definitely going to workout. I'm going to need the link for the wrist weights because actually I could probably just call my mom and be like, excuse me remember your like Jane Fonda weights from like, when there's like the 80s and the 90s. Can you just send those on over?

Amy
I mean, this is the more portable version and let's be honest, Jane Fonda still looks amazing today. So what she says I will, I will go

Jess
absolutely, absolutely

Amy
Except have you seen the GIFs of those prancercize people. She kind of looks like a poor man's Jane Fonda. She wears the 1980s leotards with the pantyhose and stuff all the way up and I wasn't sitting on my couch if I wasn't worried about embarrassing myself completely. She does. She looks like a horse prancing, and that is like her cardio workout and she has workout videos. And I don't know if she has a real following or just like a fake one but then you also have those people who wear the you remember when you have the little horse and stick?

Jess
Yes, I had all of them.

Amy
They competitions for that. Yeah, they have competitions for it. So it's like a similar mix. And then I don't know how we got there from arm weights and I apologize.

Jess
I you know what it always like? I feel like quarantine has definitely always allowed us to really delve into just the things that are like just waiting to be discovered on social media. Because there are some, like videos that are out that I'm like watching and I'm like, first off, why am I watching this. Second off, why has this video been shared 700 times? Or like, there are times where I'm like, I'll get like videos from people they'll like forwarded to me, and I'm like, or they'll tag me in it. And I'll be like, why did you tag me in this? And then I'll watch it and I'll be like, that puppy is so cute. Like, Oh, my God.

Oh, don't know, Jane Fonda

Amy
But that's one of the things that like we were talking about with relationship building, like bringing it back from our weird.

Jess
Yeah, let's go back to what we're supposed to talk about.

Amy
We're supposed to talk about. So like, the phenomenon is sharing memes and by phenomenon. I mean, the thing that's been happening for the past 10 - 12 years, but like that meme culture has grown so much, and it's fun because it's a new way to connect. With the people in your life, it's kind of like that love language of when you see something at a store, and you buy a little present for someone. Meme culture is kind of like that new love language of, hey, I saw something funny or cute or interesting or different. And I thought of you immediately and I think that's why it became so popular especially and exploding across all social channels. Because everybody likes to know that they were reminded

Jess
Yes,

Amy
Like did they somebody was reminded of them and that they make an impact on someone's life and that something funny or cute, especially if it made them feel good is something that you know, it just remind and that's why you know, more companies can be doing more with that meme culture type feel like making people feel good making people think that you thought about them and making people think that oh, you reached out and that they you see them. I think that's the most important thing is making sure that your fans and the people who follow you on social know that you see them and that you care about them, not just because you're going to buy their product, but because You actually care.

Jess
Absolutely. I think one of oh my gosh, I used to work with this woman like 10 years ago maybe she got became a real estate agent and her Instagram cracks me up. So she I think her daughter's like one, one and a half. First off, she's adorable. She's baby, so that's all right. But she takes all of so like all of those pictures that parents take of their like kids faces, but they're just like, look at this little person making this ridiculous like old man face. So like, she makes all of them into real estate memes and they're hilarious

Amy
That's such a cute way to connect with the audience

Jess
Exactly. She's like you like I'm like, This is so funny because it'll be like, what I think when you come to me without a pre approval or something like that, like it's just the things are so funny, but it's like, I like I tell her all the time. I'm like, I'm super impressed. I was like, because not only are you educating your audience, I was like you're making it funny and relatable because she's a cute one and a half year old. Like who doesn't want to work with that.

Amy
And it's something she enjoys doing to connect with her audience. And that shines through. We know absolutely. And when you absolutely want to connect with your audience, that's when they know it, and that's when it resonates, and it really makes it. So like what Peter Shankman says I, we always talk about Peter, but he is so fabulous. But so his book zoil Zombie Loyalists, which is hilarious, and honestly,

Jess
I'm just gonna call it Zolayists from now on. Zoyalists sounded like you were gonna say

Amy
Zombie Loyalists or Zoyalists, and they will now be called. He talked about how even if you just do that little extra, that little one more thing that you can do to make somebody feel seen, heard and noticed and respected. Like and that's something that you can do so easily on social media just by taking the time to engage with your audience and their posts. Like how cool is it? If you're like, I don't know you post your new car or something an actual Lexus is like hey, hope you like it. Let us know how it goes. You know, like how cool is that you get that recognition, you get that notice and it just, it makes you feel good. And it makes you want to spread more word about how great you felt working with that company or buying that product.

Jess
100% I think like I so I obviously working in social media and like, I feel like I look at social media a completely different way than anyone else, like our age looks at social media. Because like, I'm always looking for ways to help the brands that I love, especially the small businesses. So like there was oh my gosh, like I went to Orlando maybe like, two or three years ago. And I like had told the people I wanted to go it I was like, wherever we go. I like I was like, and this is terrible because it is so stereotypical of me. I was like, everything needs to be instagrammable and everyone was like, you're crazy and I'm like, fight me. And regardless like I you know you can Instagram anything but we found this super cute coffee shop like maybe like half a mile from our hotel. And they had like just opened and I followed them on Instagram, their latte art was phenomenal. They had an Instagram wall so they had wallpapered this wall and they put one of those neon signs on it and this really cool chair with the intention of like, people are going to want to Instagram this and they'll tag us in it. So I followed them. Also their drinks were super cool like I had this like lavender something latte that I was like, I don't want to drink this because it looks so pretty. So we went there and I forgot that I followed them on Instagram just because I'm like, Oh cute picture of a coffee like whatever. And the other day, it they popped up in my feed. And I was like wait a minute, Brandywine Roasting. I'm like that's up here like in Delaware. Like that's up here. What? So I then went on this Like nose dive into Instagram into like, their Instagram and like Brandywine Roasting company and like whatever and I realized that like somehow they had connected and Brandywine Roasting was doing like a special kind of like coffee for them for like a month and like they were going to sell it. So Brandywine Roasting in Delaware. This coffee shop is in Orlando, Florida.

Amy
That is so fun.

Jess
So I was like, it was one of those things where I was like, in my head as a social media like manager, I'm like, great use of social media to find them and like partner with them and spread the awareness like, because like, Delaware isn't that far from Baltimore, or like, you know, Philly. So like if someone were in Florida and they were coming up this way, and they're like, Oh, I really wanted to check out their coffee. They would know that you can get Brandywine Roasting Company coffee in all of these locations in northern Delaware. So I just thought that was like one of those moments where I was like, this is a great way to just like encourage community engagement, weirdly enough, outside of your traditional community.

Amy
Yes, yes. And grow Your footprint, grow your audience. And also, you know, grow your influence to Yeah, because the more word of mouth you have, the more people that you have that enjoy your product, use your product, and also talk about your product, obviously, the better for you. So the more you can do to empower your self, your employees and your customers to talk about you and tell your story in a positive way. Like that's, that's the end game honestly. That's better. That's better than anything you and I with our all of our marketing tactics and knowledge and every anything else can do for a company. Like they can do it better themselves by giving the ultimate customer experience and relationship to the people that are loyal to them.

Jess
Absolutely. I think like that. I Don't like I am on like I'm like neither here nor there. I don't love influencers but I don't hate them. Like I understand what they're there for. But like the best so I like my in my personal opinion like the best influencers you can have are the customers that you've given great customer service to.

Amy
They micro-influencers

Jess
Yes that's the word micro-influencer.

Amy
They people who aren't paying or you or ell, you could be, they just like you only care about your product.

Jess
Absolutely. Like there are it's funny I anytime anyone goes down to the beach like I have friends. Like, you know, I, uh, I went to college in Pennsylvania, a lot of my friends live in Pennsylvania, and a lot of them will either like they're not Jersey shore people and they're not Delaware beach people, but like when like when they go to the Delaware beaches because some of them do. I always tell them like oh, make sure you get breakfast from here and lunch from here and if you're going to get dinner, like the first thing I do is tell them like these are the beaches. You should go to These are the restaurants you should eat at.

Amy
And for this go here for this go here this. Yes, exactly,

Jess
Exactly. Because it's like when I went there was such a great, you know, the service was great. Their products were great. The food was great because I'm not going to send anyone a place where I'm like the food's like subpar. Nothing anywhere down there but

Amy
The food isn't good, but Stephanie will serve it to you with a smile. Yeah.

Jess
Yeah, exactly. Like I always give kudos to like waitresses who like take the initiative to like, connect with like, with like, people sitting at their table, because like, like, I like we were at a restaurant down at the beach and like my like, I'm Filipino. My mom is Filipino. My aunt and uncle or Filipino my aunt's Filipino. She married a white guy. And her husband had on a shirt that said like body by lumpia, which lumpia is a like Filipino like small crunchy egg roll. And our waitress asked him, she said she was like the where'd you get that shirt? And he was like, Oh, my wife got it for me. And she's like, I got it off Etsy. And she's like, oh, my husband is Filipino. And from there on out, she was like, our favorite person. Right? We went back again. And we're like, Is she here? Can we have her as our waitress

Amy
She took the time to build that relationship with you? Yeah, I think so. My boyfriend and I, we were going out to dinner and we were like, you know what, let's just pick a place off the street. Let's just go somewhere we've never met. So we picked a place but ended up to be way out of our budget. But now that place because of the first experience we had with our first waitress, who, you know, we ordered, we got some steak, we got some scallops, you know, whatever. And it was the place where you like you order sides. They don't come with them it like it was really fancy like it was one of those I didn't belong in it. But she was like, she brought out all the food to us. And then she was like, I know you guys didn't want the Mexican street corn. But it's absolutely amazing. And I needed to bring it to you guys to try. We have gone back for that corn specifically, like when we were going back for Valentine's Day because you know, we got to save up for these trips. Were like all we talked about like we were talking about, you know, the steaks, blah blah blah. We talked about that corn more than anything else. And how cool it was that she brought it to us. And she was like, You know what? not charging you guys for this, but you need to try it. Yeah, and just that experience and every single time we've gone back since they always give no matter who we have. They always give us that same Oh, you know, nice to see you. You're from North Carolina to oh my gosh, that's right. I remember that's where the head chef is from, you know, and it's a really cool it's just like we feel like they care that we're coming.

Jess
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And I feel like for like social media is such a great place to like utilize that. Like I I always when we onboard new clients, the first thing I tell them is any. I tell them like the things I want from you right now, a list of everyone you've worked with. Because, like, if you think about it, like we've said the best, you know, references you can get are people who have used your product who have had who have experienced your services, and you want to make sure that you're keeping in touch with them, they might be a repeat customer. I always tell people I'm like, I need a list of you know, the maybe like the last year or two, the clients that you've helped the businesses you've been with the people that would be willing to give us a review. And then the second thing is always I'm an I, I was on like live photos. I'm like, just text me pictures from a job if you're on a job. Text me pictures of an event if you guys are at an event. You know, I always so this is like I always think of like businesses as like, the mom who like never has any pictures of herself. Like so that that's that's always like my role as like best friend is all of my friends that have kids, I'm like, Here pose for this pose for this pose for this. And they're all just like, I send them like 100 like I visit for like an hour. And now they've got 100 pictures of them with their kids. But like I think about some businesses that way, because they take so much time, like doing the job, that there's no actual pictures of the job that I always tell them. Like, even if you just take one, I was like, I was like, you need to get in the habit of taking a before picture and an after picture. So like, you know, we have a couple clients who provide services, I'll say like, we'll take a picture of like the before, and then do your job and then take a picture the after because people want to see like, Okay, if I'm paying you to do this service, what's it going to look like when you're done?

Amy
Exactly

Jess
Plus they want to see the progress? Plus, from a social media standpoint, you can tag like, you know, you know, we were at you know, Amy's today and this is what we did, and Amy can comment on that and say like, Oh my gosh, you guys did such a great job. You're, you know, the workers they were so polite and kind. And like, you know, that's a review. Like that's a glowing review from someone. And that's like, and I think Facebook is moving more towards Facebook, like groups. Like if people are in all of these, like community groups or like the Next Door app, like people, like, you know, say you're like in your next door app, and someone says, Does anyone have a recommendation for A, you would be like, oh, they were just at my house. They did such a great job. here check them out on Facebook. And like, because you've made one post with two pictures and tagged one person, you've now got recommendations for a neighborhood of people. Exactly. So it's like, it's that whole, like trickle down of like, one person will influence maybe two people and then those two people might go tell more people. And then you're doing you know, lawn care for the entire neighborhood.

Amy
It is the yard sign of the digital age.

Jess
Yes. Oh my gosh, that's a good one. I'm not like you Sometimes a yard sign of the digital age.

Amy
That doesn't stop when the job is over to because it can have a much longer shelf life digitally than it could just sitting in the lawn while you're doing the job.

Jess
Absolutely. Because if you think about it, like I now that we're in like an election season and I see those like terrible like the just the political signs everywhere, I'm like, this is distracting to drivers, like someone's going to get in a car accident reading all of this stuff. Um, it's like you drive past it once and you don't see it again, unless you drive back down that road. Whereas like online, like I told like I was it. Someone posted something about like, they went on vacation somewhere and they did Oh, my sister posted something about how she's in Colorado and she went, .

Amy
oh yea you were telling me that she was in Colorado and ruined everything for you.

Jess
And she like here I am in the mountains. Here I am, you know, zip lining and the Colorado mountains.

Amy
You posted the picture of your coffee in front your computer.

Jess
By my desk. So that thing I opened Facebook, I think 10 times that day. And like seven of the 10 times, that was the first thing I saw. I'm like, I already liked this post and already commented on it, but it's here six more times. Um, so I feel like that's a pretty good example. Like, one day, I'm sitting at my desk and I open Facebook 10 times, and they're seven of the 10 times where it's like a yard sign, like, you drive down the road to work or you drive down the road to the grocery store, you see it once, and then maybe you circle back around and you don't only

Amy
But only if it's pertinent you at that point in time.

Jess
Right.

Amy
And then if it's pertinent to you in a few months, it's not like you can go back and see what the yard sign was, but you can scroll back to the post and see what it was for.

Jess
Exactly, definitely.

Amy
Again, there was um, I had a I had a word of mouth referral that saved me over $1,000. So you know Randy Wrangler may you he rest in piece because he was sold. Um, so he, something happens and I wasn't sure what but all of a sudden he started making this horrible, horrible sounds. And by horrible, horrible sound. I mean, when I picked up my friend for lunch one day, she was like, Oh my god, she's picked me up in front of the building. It's so embarrassing. She doesn't embarrass easily, but when she got in my car, she slumped down in her seat, and she was hoping that like nobody saw her. You know, she works for very big banking. And she's got to keep up appearances. And apparently, Randy Wrangler did not fit in.

Jess
Not up to par.

Amy
So I took him to my dealership where I had a warranty on it, but the warranty had expired. And they told me that I needed a whole new catalytic converter. And that I needed to do all of these different things and that, you know, this was cracked and this was and it was going to cost me about 1500 dollars. So at the time, it was before I was with Epic, and I was working for a motor sports marketing company. So obviously I had a lot of connections and I I texted one of the racecar drivers and I knew really well and I was like, hey, this is what my mechanic just told me. What do I need to do? He goes, you're gonna be really embarrassing and loud, but you can drive without it for a little while while you figure things out. And I'm like, okay. So then it got to the point where I was like, You know what, I don't have any more warranty with my automotive like with my sales person or whatever. So why not see if I can find somebody that recommends me a place to go get a different quote, and maybe I won't have to pay as much. So one of my co workers recommended that I go to this place called Fox auto, made an appointment, took it in. I was in there for 20 minutes. They looked at my car, they came out they printed out a diagram. They were like, Okay, this is what has happened. Your exhaust system is no longer connected to your engine. It requires four bolts that have rusted through, and that is why it has fallen. They were like we're going to try and remove the old bolts. We're gonna do it very, very carefully. As long as we are able to remove those and put new ones in without damaging the actual parts that they're holding together. We'll have you out of here in a few minutes. They did it guess how much it cost me?

Jess
Oh, I feel like it's gonna be like 60 bucks.

Amy
60 bucks Exactly. It was $59 when my old when my dealership had quoted me over 1500 or something like that like a very high number telling me I had to replace all of this stuff. And you better believe I was icing Fox automotives praises to the world. They to me for everything. I'm obviously not that up on mechanics of a car. I know that I like I'm really good with like race cars and stuff like that from what I used to do, but like how they actually work is not part of my skill. But so like I have recommended them now to so many people and they were recommended to me and it's because of those relationships that you develop with those customers, giving them that service, going the extra mile to explain, Hey, I know you were told this, this is what I'm telling you. Now, I want you to trust me, this is what we're going to try and do. I can't promise you the best results, but that's what I'm going to try for.

Jess
I believe it's that like, transparency. It's like being honest. I know.

Amy
Like, 100% they're being honest,

Jess
There's a ton of our clients who are like, you know, like, we field all of their comments for them and kind of filter through like, what we can answer and what we want them to answer. And there are times where like, all forward something to one of them and they'll be like, we have just our call centers extra busy now, like because people can't they don't want to go to the location. They don't want to ask a question. So like they'll call in which means like, the waiting times instead of being like number one in the queue, you might be like 12, which might mean that you're going to be on hold for like an hour, which

Amy
And hold music never made anybody happier

Jess
No and Yeah no oh god no.

But like there it is one of those things where like when I ask them when because there are a lot of times where like I I feel like the customer service thought is that like I will call first if they're a number to call, I'll email second and if you don't answer those within I won't even say an allotted amount of time because I think the amount of time varies per person. Like I will let you by email a company I'll forget about it and I'll be like, Oh, that was like a week ago like I should have heard back from but I

Amy
I still haven't gotten a package from the postal service for the past five months.

Jess
Oh, God.

Amy
Oh, my lackadaisical nature and dealing with my complaint trying to get my package

Jess
Exactly like I just like forget because I don't like that like confrontation of like, Where's my stuff? But then like, I think some people are like, if you don't answer my email within the next hour, I'm going to just blast you on social media. So there will be times were like, I will literally like email a client and say like, are you guys having like, you know, call times like, this is the tweet that came through. This is the Facebook message that came through. And they'll be like, we have extra people working in the call center. And there isn't like, there's just nothing we can do. There's an extra amount of calls. There's some times where I just like laugh, because like, and maybe this is me being like, adept at like technology just being like, but you can do that in the app on your phone. You don't have to call. So then it's one of those things where like, we use social media to spread the knowledge like, hey, did you know that you can do this? If you download the app? Did you know that instead of calling you can log in online and do this, just because I think it's like it. It's such an ebb and flow of like, what's relevant and what's not especially now because people can't, or people don't want to they don't want to go into a location. They don't want to interact with people that are outside of there. Just been calling it outside of their like pandemic bubble. Right?

Amy
Well, and pandemic bubbles are important. And I also think, though, that a lot of the shift to digital and where social can play such an important role is reminding people that even though it's a company that you're dealing with its people behind the scenes, and it's still that human element and it's still that human propensity to mess up sometimes. You know, like, I know, I messed up in my job, sometimes I know that everybody makes mistakes. And it's only by making those mistakes and figuring it out and getting better that you can start providing for your clients at an even higher level than you were before because now you learn those lessons and i think that you know, social can be such a key tool and reminding people about the actual people you have behind the scenes like yes, you have a logo. Yes, we have brand colors. Yes, you have all of these different products and like big things that make you seem important, but the core of it all you're still people, and you're still trying to provide a service to other people. And I think that that that's where the beauty of social media comes. And it's like, yes, we can have these conversations, we can have these connections. And then when you're on a wait time for an hour and a half, and the whole music has been like a repeat of the same weird jazz song, that you don't understand, you know, it makes it a little bit easier to remind yourself. Deep breath. This person didn't cause my issue, but this person is going to try and help me fix it. So absolutely. Yeah,

Jess
yeah, that little, I think, I think that like, I don't care. I mean, like, I don't know, any, you know, kind of business or anything that would be an exception to that. Like, I think it is super important. And I know we tell all of our clients, it's super important to show them that you guys are people. And a lot of the more engaging posts that we find on social media are the ones where they're like, you know, here's our you know, President, here's one of our whatever I'm like, I always think that Like, and maybe this is because this is our age demographic like we're in our late 20s, early 30s. Like, this is what we're doing. We're in our late 20s, early 30s, without children.

Amy
But I mean, unless you don't want to count the little Newton, can you see him?

Jess
He totally counts because he's just so cute and fluffy.

Amy
that's as close as we've come to children. But yes, I agree.

Jess
But like, I like we go to a lot of wineries and breweries, and I feel like they most of the ones at least around here, too, are the ones I follow on social media do a great job of saying like, say happy birthday to you know, our, you know, the, you know, I can't even think of words right now, but like, say hello to our chief brewer or like, you know, I think about like, they use their employees in photos like of the beer of enjoying the beer garden of right, yeah, I know that they don't go out. Not all of them go out and like pick grapes. I actually don't know how that works. I should probably learn that. but they show pictures

Amy
But like they show pictures of and tractors pulls

Jess
Right like they show them out doing stuff. And I feel like showing your employees and showing yourself as a like you as part of the brand. So like you need to show that like you're involved in your business. And you're not just like pawning it off to someone else. Because if you are involved, people want to know you become the face of your business. Um, and then people like are they understand that it's not just like a robot? It's, you know, Amy's answering questions, Jess is answering questions. You know, they're the ones who answer the phone when you call. There's they're the voice you hear when you pick up the phone and you need to leave a message.

Amy
Right, It's like Richard Branson with Virgin. Like, I only expect that if I were to ever call he might answer like he is just like the coolest and I know that it's probably not him in charge of his social media. And I know it's probably not him doing a lot of things but it feels like it is and it feels like he shares he shares you know, his employees accolades, he shares what his family brings to him. He shares what's important to him and none of it is really ever profits. Some of it is, but a lot of it is just how he has been able to live his life, how his company allows people to connect what they do what they're trying to do to further human good. And he's one of my favorite examples of a celebrity that's like a business, a business celebrity, I guess. I feel like I know. And then I feel like even though I'm not really sure everything that Virgin does, because I feel like its a lot.

Jess
Yeah.

Amy
But like, I always want to be able to afford them if I could, I can't fly Virgin Atlantic, I'm barely able to afford Southwest at this point. But like, you know what I mean? Like they're like, I want to know more about them, even though I can't afford them right now. And I don't really know what they do. There's somebody that I keep up with, simply because of what he is made the face of his company as him as this caring entrepreneur who wants other people to succeed who invest in other people who sees that other people's potential doesn't mean his downfall. It could mean his health. It His further growth.

Jess
Absolutely

Amy
And I feel like that he doesn't get he is all about helping other people achieve what she's achieved instead of keeping people down to keep what he's got. You know what I mean? Like and that's what I love. And that's what I like to see with other companies I love to see when other companies are reaching out on social trying to help hire you know, people of all different backgrounds trying to help show how they're giving a voice to all of these different people keeping up with their own customers, making sure that the products that they're putting out and how they're positioning them is to improve people's lives and not just improve their sales and you know, those are like Patagonia,

Jess
Oh my gosh I love Patagonia,

Amy
I, you know, their fleeces are so expensive, but I'll buy them and then I guard them with my life. But they have such a good message they're everything that they're doing for the environment, everything that they're doing for their employees, they put their employees First they put the people who buy their products first over what they're trying to do and the profit says they're trying to gain and I feel like that just those different messages that you can put out and that you can use social to spread those messages through are just so important.

Jess
Oh I agree. 100% I think, like I was telling Ann the other day like, I'm like, I love that we have an intern. She's phenomenal.

Amy
Oh, Madi I love Madi

Jess
I know, I love her. But like, it's great to have her because I can say like, okay, this client got tagged in like, 20 things, I need you to respond to all of them. Because like, I like I think a big point for small businesses is understanding. So I was leaving medium and large businesses understanding that, that like, community manager position is super important. So like, we like the other reason that I asked a lot of our clients for like, the list of people they've worked with, is so that like, I as their social media point person can keep track of like, what that client what that client of our client is doing. So that like, you know, you can say like, you know, if they did something for a salon, congratulations on your remodel like, you know, we're like, especially with the pandemic, we're so excited you guys get to open again.

Amy
Exactly.

Jess
Just those little extra things that have nothing to do with selling a product just right being a good human, which I like that's it like you just your business needs to be a good human.

Amy
Exactly. At Every business' core should be a good human.

Jess
Yes, and like just being like willing. And on social media, it's so easy. You can sit like I could sit at my computer. And for like one client, set a timer for 10 minutes and have a list of 25 like businesses or people that I want to find on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook, and just look for something that might be worth commenting on or sharing. A lot of times like some of our clients are members of like the chamber, like the local Chamber of Commerce comment on an event they post about talk about, you know, the last time you went to a networking event and how great it was. It's about

Amy
Or if your Epic, post about the aware you just won for best marketing at the last awards event you went to.

Jess
Absolutely humblebrag.

But like, include that in your social plan because you can post until your fingers fall off. But unless you're taking the extra step to kind of engage with the people who are following you and engage with people who actually use your business services, then you're not going to get very far but people are going to remember that like I messaged them on Facebook about this and then they were back to me in like three hours like they answered my question and they were more than happy to help me and they offered to call me so they could talk about it on the phone like they wanted to make an appointment like exemplary customer service and like it's just Kind of like tweaking all of that to fit the social media platforms?

Amy
Exactly, exactly. It's just taking your personal presence and turning it into that digital personal presence, which is what social media allows you to do. And the other thing that's great about social media is that you know, so we were talking about before, all the platforms are a little different, you behave a little differently on all the platforms. But that's great, because then it also gives you a little bit more insight as to who is on that particular platform in your audience. Because you know, while you might have somebody who follows you on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, whatever it is that you have, there might be the rare unicorn that follows you on all of them. And if so, I hope you are sending them regular presence and engaging with them frequently because they're like your top star. But usually, people have their different platforms that they enjoy. People have the different companies that they follow on those different platforms for those different reasons. You know, like I follow celebrities on Instagram and Twitter. I don't follow him on Facebook and LinkedIn. I don't even know if celebrities have LinkedIn.

Jess
Probably, but I don't really know. Good question

I've never found one on there. I'm like, Who did I meet at this networking event? And where can I find you on LinkedIn?

Amy
Like, well, I usually for me, it's like, oh, who was creeping my profile, and let me creep them back? Yeah,

Jess
Yeah. I feel like people just LinkedIn is a little creepy that way. But yeah, like, I think that knowing and I was just telling this to a client the other day, like, you're on this and this and this. And when we're on Twitter, this is who we're targeting. When we're on Facebook this is what we're targeting and we're on LinkedIn, this is who we're targeting. So it's like, you know, Facebook might be your general information. Twitter's gonna be like all the people that you're I think they were talking we were talking about job postings. Twitter's gonna be all the younger people. So we're gonna be targeting like, you know, the people at the entry level jobs. Were like LinkedIn, we're going to just do all job postings. We're just gonna do all of that and a bag of chips.

Amy
What kind of chips?

Jess
And like she was just like. Any of them at this point because actually, I will not lie. I did find out that like Trader Joe's has like backyard barbecue potato chips that are like a mixture of like four different kinds of potato chips and I have not been back since. And I'm super sad because I feel like they're going to be sold out.

Amy
That sounds really yummy. I'm not gonna lie.

Jess
Yeah. But anyway, back to my point. But yeah, so like, when I explained it to her like that, she's like, Oh, that makes so much sense. I'm like, Yeah, because you have different audiences on the different platforms. Like I think celebrities are a great example. Like, I'm following. I can't even think of a celebrity I'm following, like

I follow so and so on Instagram. Yeah, like, I love Chrissy Teigen

Instagram because like, I want to see what she's doing. I follow her on Twitter because she I want to see what she

Amy
I want to see what she says about Trump as

Jess
well. I don't know that I'm following celebrities on Facebook. I'm like, trying to think and I don't think I am I follow. So I follow brands on Facebook, but I

Amy
I follow brands on Facebook

Jess
Yeah, I don't follow celebrities. Like that's just not what I'm there for. And I'm certainly not following them on LinkedIn, because I don't even know if celebrities have LinkedIn.

Amy
But I am on Instagram.

Jess
Right. So I feel like knowing your audience and then engaging with them, I think I I think that is extra extra important is making sure that if someone comments on a post, answer them within 24 hours, like

Amy
always, always answer your comments. I cannot stress that enough. Yeah, I feel like taking the time to comment on your posts you better damn well take the time to either thank them for them, ask answer their question or respond in some other quippy fun way. You know?

Jess
Exactly. So I think like if someone's commenting on something or even like we just had intern Madi do this. One of our clients posted something and it got shared like 100 times. And I said, okay, we said okay, today you're going to comment on every single share, like and thank them for sharing your information and like invite them to like the page. And like it had a good ROI to use my language

Amy
Looked at you and for everyone wondering return on investment, everybody? Well, I feel like most people know ROI. So I'm the worst with acronyms.

Jess
So like, yeah, so like,

Amy
Someone said SOP that so give me the other day and it took me a full minute to be like, oh, standard operating procedures. Okay.

Jess
I see I was today years old when I discovered that's what that meant. Um, but yeah, so like she, she like, again, intern work. She spent how like, I think she spent like a couple hours doing it. And, you know, half like almost half the people went back and liked the page because they were like, Oh, I want to see more stuff like this. And this person took the time to comment on my share and say thank you

Amy
So I definitely think it's not hard. That's the thing. It is like anyone can do it. And everyone should do it, like from the CEO, down to the intern, and everyone in between engaging on post making sure that your customers and followers feel valued, feel engaged. I don't want to say feel engaged when you engage in the post, but that's kind of it like, you know, like, make sure that they feel like they're part of your circle.

Jess
Yes, like so to full circle, because a lot of what I can come full circle, I'm like, it's just like the waitress making conversation at the table. You're already there. And now she's connecting to you. You're connecting back. Now she's connecting with you. Again. When you come back to that restaurant, you're going to ask for her you're going to use you're going to say like I had such a great experience, like here Amy you should go here for dinner tomorrow night. It's just that like, instead of it being In person, you're now taking that in person interaction. And you're moving it to the digital world where everybody's sitting on their couch. Like, way less effort. You're just moving your thumbs or your pointer finger.

Amy
Way less effort, similar results.

Jess
Exactly.

Amy
That's a good ROI. Well, I think our time is probably up.

Jess
I know I feel like I'm getting like the like timer. Horn.

Amy
I know. I feel like I think I have to jump on another meeting here in a minute because you know, life of agency is never done.

Jess
Never Ending never ending meetings. What was good

to talk to you?

Amy
Yes. Very good to talk to you as well

Jess
You will be back.

Amy
Yes, I hope so. Because this is always fun. I really enjoy this.

Jess
So I feel like we get to talk about stuff that like is work related, but like, also relevant to everybody else. Yes. To thank you for joining us today.

Amy
We'll talk about because I feel like we could have talked about how marketing is like a dating site, but we didn't really get there. But I feel like maybe next time that's what we can talk about.

Jess
I'll bring that up in our team meeting. So Amy and I would like to have a podcast about dating, dating apps and social media apps and the parallels between that.

Amy
Yes and how you can learn to be a better business person by learning how to be a better dater and relationship builder.

Jess
I feel like so I'm literally going to say like Madi, if you go and get like a master's degree and communication, this is what your master's degree in marketing, this is what your paper needs to be on. You need to do the research

Although I feel like we need a disclaimer that like I neither of us are married.

Right? So we are not, we are

maybe not great on the reviews of dating advice, but we are on dating apps, we are not at all we haven't reached the point where we can like say like this is definitive.

Amy
But did I tell you I watched all of Indian matchmaking on your recommendation.

Jess
SO, good.

Amy
And it was so good. It was so fabulous. But just so it just reiterates that all of the same relationship building techniques are with marketing and dating. So maybe that'll be our next topic how dating and marketing are the same.

Jess
similar. I hope so. Well Amy, I hope you have a great day. I'm sure we will have you back. Thank you for joining us. Thank you all for tuning in this week. We hope this theory is relative to your marketing needs. Make sure you subscribe to get notified of our latest episodes.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai