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Social Sessions
Brought to you by TJ Creative Agency, a social media marketing agency, this podcast that will take you behind the scenes of the world of social media. Whether you're an influencer, a business owner, a content creator or just an overall creative person we will teach you how to create the perfect social media strategy and build your brand online.
Social Sessions
How to Build Authority on Social Media and Increase ROI with Emma Tessler
Imagine stepping into the thriving realm of social media marketing, gaining valuable insights to drive leads and choosing the best platforms that resonate with your target audience. That's exactly what we'll be doing alongside our guest, Emma Tesla, founder and CEO of Ninety FiceMedia, a powerhouse in the digital marketing space. Emma takes us on a deep dive into social media authority building, the critical role of video content, and the novel feature of Instagram that lets you add notes to your in-feed posts. Plus, we share exciting news about our venture into email marketing, a game-changer for conversion rates.
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Have you ever wondered what goes into your favorite brand's digital marketing strategy?
Speaker 2:I'm Tara, the founder of TJ Creative Agency and I'm Audrey, the Creative Marketing Director of TJ Creative Agency. Whether you're an influencer, a business owner, a content creator or just an overall creative person, we'll teach you how to create the perfect social media strategy and build your brand online. Hi guys, welcome back to Social Sessions. It is me, audrey, here to give you a little intro into this week's episode. We have Emma Tesla on this week and I'm so excited for you guys to hear this episode. Emma is the founder and CEO of 95 Media, which is a female-run digital marketing agency based in Dallas, texas. We really talked about a lot on this episode, but to give you a little bit of insight into what is coming up, we talked a bit about how to build authority on social media, which is super important when it comes to building that trust with your community and with your audience. We talked about how to know which platform is right for you and your business and how to create video content that is actually going to generate leads. So if that sounds like anything that you guys want to hear about, then definitely stick around for this episode. I loved getting to chat with Emma Tara and I had a blast with her, and it's just such a good informational episode that I'm super excited for you guys to listen to. I also wanted to say this is the last episode of 2023. We are taking next week off due to the holidays and whatnot, and then we'll come right back in the new year. I believe the fourth will be the day that our next episode drops, but I just want to let you guys know there is not going to be an episode next week, but thank you so much for such a great 2023. I know Tara and I have had such a good time recording this podcast and getting to know you guys and having you guys in our DMs and talking with you guys, and we just loved it. So thank you guys so much for such a good 2023, and we will see you guys in the new year. Of course, we still have this episode that you guys will get to listen to and, just like always, I have a little tip of the week slash news of the week, if you will, and that is that Instagram is testing the capacity to add notes to in feed posts.
Speaker 2:Now, before you're like, nobody uses notes, apparently people do. Younger users mostly like teens, it says create notes 10 times more than other users in the app. So essentially, the whole reason that they're really pushing for notes is because the younger generation is using it, and that's typically where they've lost ground to TikTok in the past. Right, they haven't really lost. The millennials are older. They've lost, like Gen Z and younger, so if this is something that the younger generations are interested in, they're obviously going to do as much as they can with it. So I don't fully understand this. It says viewers will be able to tap the profile button on the post to see the note that somebody left. I'm going to be honest, I'm like not really understanding the difference between a note and just like commenting. But it's essentially the idea is to help boost engagement, but it's in the works right now. They also just added two second looping videos to notes. I'm going to be so honest with you guys. I don't use notes that much and I don't think most of our clients do, but it doesn't look like they're going anywhere anytime soon because they keep making new developments. So that's kind of your tip of the week.
Speaker 2:I also wanted to share something very exciting, and that is that our agency, tj Creative Agency, is now offering email marketing. Now, this is huge. We have talked about email marketing on this podcast. It is probably one of the best forms of digital marketing to increase your conversion. Obviously, there's a lot of different types of digital marketing out there. Email marketing is the only one where you have complete control over the platform. You have complete control over your audience. You can be very specific with who you're targeting. If you want to talk to one specific person, you can. You can personalize things. There's so many benefits to email marketing, but the one thing that I think people overlook is the conversion rates are insane on email marketing. Social media obviously has some conversion, but it's overall pretty good for brand awareness. Email marketing is where you are going to really reel in the audience. You're casting the net with social media and then you reel it in in email marketing. So it's genuinely the perfect pair.
Speaker 2:If you are listening, right now we are offering $250 off. That is huge, you guys. It's for a very limited time. So if you are listening to this, the day that this episode comes out, it's $250 off of our email marketing services. But you have to book the discovery call within the next two days, because it goes up to normal price after that. So there is going to be a link in the description of a discovery call. It's going to be completely free, where you get to learn all about our email marketing and about the bundle, because I will let you guys in on a little secret we have not publicized this yet, so this is the social sessions inside scoop, but we have a bundle deal where you can get social media marketing and email marketing for a discounted rate if you get both of them together.
Speaker 2:Like I said, this is genuinely the perfect combo. You cast the net with social media marketing and then you reel in the conversions in email marketing. So I wanted to tell you guys about that because it is brand new. Like I said, we never, ever do discounts, so having $250 off is huge, but you have to book the call by Friday. Okay, end of day, friday.
Speaker 2:If you are listening to this on Thursday, the what's the date? I'm listening to this on Thursday, the 21st. You have to book that call by Friday. End of day, friday, the 22nd, okay, if you want to get that discount. Huge, huge stuff. So if that is something you guys are interested in, like I said, it is in the description or you can find out on our website. However, you want to get in touch with us, but I wanted to let you guys know that before we jump into this episode with Emma Tesla. So thank you, emma, for being on the podcast. We are so excited to have you here. I would love if you could kind of give a little bit of information on your background, who you are. Just tell us everything about you. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here. So my name is Emma Tesla. I'm the founder of 95 Media. We are a digital marketing agency and we really work to support brands who are scaling and want to grow their online presence and monetize their audience.
Speaker 3:But marketing was definitely not the path that I thought I would go down. I definitely was on. I was on a totally different career path. I went to school for interior design, actually, and so I was in school for design and like fully thought that was what I wanted to do and kind of found marketing along the way while I was working for a designer. And that was back in 2015, when not a lot of brands were doing their social media marketing. It wasn't this big strategy for a lot of businesses and I just really fell in love with it and I saw that it was the future and kind of built it as a side hustle for a few years. And then COVID hit and obviously changed everything in 2020. And that was when I really took the leap and went full in, like full time, into 95 Media and it's been a really crazy ride and journey ever since.
Speaker 2:I would love to kind of talk about that realization that you had of the importance of social media. Was there like one thing that you saw, was there like one moment that you can remember, like what was the point where you were like this is important for companies and why aren't more people utilizing this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so when I found it, quote unquote was when I was working for a designer and she wanted to start a new branch of her business and she was just kind of like I heard that people are doing this on Instagram. Here's my phone. You're 18 years old, you can figure it out. Just see what other people are doing. Figure out what we can do to kind of spread the word about the business. And so I had really never looked at social media from a brand perspective before. I mean, it was so early days and I was using it to post sunset photos with a Nashville filter to my personal account.
Speaker 3:So I was like this isn't. I don't know what this is. And so it was once I really started to take a deep dive into looking at what actual businesses were doing and, granted, it was a very small pool of businesses doing it. At the time, I just was looking around and I was like, well, if they're doing it like this, then why aren't more businesses doing it like this? Why am I still hearing radio ads instead of people posting on Instagram, when I'm spending watching three hours a day on Instagram? And I listened to radio for five minutes on my drive to Dunkin' Donuts like I just there's certain things were starting to like. I was starting to question a lot more. So it was really kind of at that point when I realized this is definitely where things are going. I don't know what it's gonna look like, but it was very exciting and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did you see any success with that very first client Like, what did that kind of look like for you?
Speaker 3:We? I mean, it was slow growth for sure. I had no idea what I was doing. It was you know, a lot of trial and error. But she was down for that because she didn't know what she was doing either and it was just kind of like let's do this together, let's figure it out along the way. But our my relationship with that client we actually still do work with her today.
Speaker 3:All right so you know, we have a beautiful relationship and she has trusted us with different aspects of her marketing over the years and a Lot of what we did back then was just really starting to grow a brand presence, and so that was where I really began with okay, well, what do you post and what kind of language do you use and what kind of content connects with your audience and how frequently do you post? And it was a big learning journey and it kind of was the catalyst to Continuing to learn more about marketing over the next few years and I mean that's really never stopped.
Speaker 3:But right heavily in those first few years.
Speaker 2:So that was kind of your first Exposure, I guess, to social media marketing. How did you get from that point to starting your own agency?
Speaker 3:So once I was, you know, that was like a summer internship. So once that summer internship was done, I'm back in college and I'm doing design, and so I kind of started Taking out like I'd mention it kind of randomly here and they're like oh yeah, I've done some social media marketing, I've done work with this person, and so then some future internships kind of included a little bit of that work. But I was still fully on the path of, like we're doing design, we are obviously getting our degree, like this is what we're doing here. And so then once I graduated it, that was when I really started to take it more seriously. So I I landed Dream job and design before I even graduated and I was like okay, like this is the path, like we're doing this marketing. It was like fun. But then as I really kind of dive deeper into design, I realized that marketing kind of was a little bit more exciting to me. And so I would, you know, mention it on at conferences or at dinners and events and things like that.
Speaker 3:And Through those relationships that I had in design, we signed, or I signed, our first couple of clients when it was still just me, and then, as I'm working full-time there just became certain things. Even with working every evening and every week End, there's certain things you can't do during the work day. I was working in an office like there was no remote work at this time at all and so I made my first hire when I was 22, and that was kind of like the beginning of the agency, because I realized I can't be a one-person show like this Just physically isn't possible, and so that was kind of the beginning. And then from there, you know, as we just continue to organically grow and we sign more clients and we offered more services, at that point that's kind of where the agency began to expand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sure this is a question that people have all the time when they're starting in social media. But how did you acquire those first few clients? Was it like through networking? Was it were you reaching out and doing like cold emails, like what did that look like for you?
Speaker 3:I Fully just cold-pitched people. I was like fully. It was like so one of the first clients that we signed, I was at at an event with my company like my design company that was working for and it was a Mixology event and it was super fun. We all went to the showroom and this these had this mixologist come in and we all made these fun cocktails. And this was in 2018, I want to say, or 2017. It was still like early days, definitely not like our first client, but you know beginning and Everyone's on their phone, everyone's posting it to their Instagram, and so I'm on my phone, I'm taking pictures and I'm like, wow, this would be super fun to post about.
Speaker 3:And so I go to their profile and it was scary bad, it wasn't not good, and so I went up to one of the founders was the one leading the event that evening, and so I went up to him at the end of the event and I was like, hey, listen, um, love what you guys did. This was so fun, but your Instagram is not the best and I could really help, and these are like a few things that I think we should do with your Instagram. Do you have someone managing it, would you be open to talking about it? And a few days later I go to their we work office for chatting. I signed them a couple days later.
Speaker 3:So that was kind of you know, a prime example of seeing a problem, knowing you can solve it and just having the Confidence to go up to that person and be like hey, do you want to chat about this? Yeah, and I always come to any situation with up from a place of serving, and I think that's really important in the service-based industries. Sometimes that gets lost and we kind of get focused on why I need to sign the next client, I need to make payroll and I need to pay the bills and it's like, well, actually, really, at the end of the day, what we're doing is serving clients and when we come back to that, like us as a team, even the work that we do is so much better and I always keep that the forefront of any sales pitch, sales call, anything like that is, at the end of the day, we're really serving them and we get to benefit from, like they're, the great results that they get to see while we're getting with us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, that's so. That's such a good point. I think about that with a lot of like service-based businesses like I I don't know why this stuck with me for so long, but I worked in coffee when I was in college, like that was my college job is I like was a barista, and I Remember like a regional manager had come in and he was like we aren't in the coffee business, we're in the people business, and I feel like that's what everybody in the service-based industry says, and it applies to To social media too. Right, if you're providing a service, the interactions you have with those clients are just as important as the deliverables that you are giving them.
Speaker 3:The relationships you build along the way are what keep your business growing, and I you know like it's more important than what you know. There's this quote where it's like it's not really a quote, I guess it's just like a saying that retaining a client is a lot less expensive than signing a new client, right, and so when you keep your clients happy and they continue to come back to you whether or not they're even referring more clients to you, which of course we all want but if your client is happy and they stay with you and their lifetime value as a client is doubling and tripling over time, which we often see because our retention rate is really, really great that's so much less expensive than running ads, going to networking events, taking trips, going to conferences, building these connections and of course you want to be doing them along the way too but keeping current clients happy and building those relationships is so good that you bring that up, because that is another thing.
Speaker 2:That exact like idea of retention is those clients are. It's cheaper to keep those clients right than it is to bring in new clients. That was like something that I also remember learning in college. That like stuck with me for so long and I feel like that's something we've been talking about as a team quite frequently recently is like focusing on the retention versus just like focusing on bringing so many new people in. Because if you can keep the people you're having, if you can keep the people you have now, like you said, it's it's going to be. It's going to cost you less, like you said, but it's also going to cost you less effort. Like you don't have to go, you don't have to pitch yourself, you don't have to do the onboarding, you don't have to learn a whole new client.
Speaker 3:Like it's also cheaper in a time than you have in a time like this, yeah, and and when you think about the financial insecurity of, like, the state of the world for the past few years, if you can just keep your current clients happy and worry less about signing new clients and more of your focus can be on keeping current clients happy, I think that makes everyone's life easier, and that's been a big focus for us the past few years too is, you know, yeah, it might have been harder to sign clients during this period or however long whatever, but at the same time, if you didn't like, if you didn't have any attrition, it still means that you're really great and your current clients are happy, and so I think it's something everyone should focus on.
Speaker 3:We even look at it sometimes. I go well, you know, could we send maybe a $20 gift card just reading them like, hey, hope you're having a great Friday, like enjoy your weekend, to make someone feel really special, and I think that $20 at the end of the day means absolutely nothing in the big picture, but to them it makes them feel really special and it could be the difference between them, you know, considering okay, well, maybe I wasn't so happy with this one thing this month, but I feel really special. I know they value my, my business. I know they value me as a person. I still really not. Not that you know you should buy anyone's business by anyone means any means, but the end of the day it's kind of like you know you treating them as any other relationship in your life showing appreciation, showing them love and making them yeah absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 2:Hi guys, I am hopping on here really quick in the middle of this episode to let you guys know about one more discount we are running, like I said, we never, ever have any sort of sales but for a limited time, through the end of this month, through the end of December of 2020 don't know when you guys are listening to this but through the end of December of 2023. We are offering 20% off on our one on one calls. Okay, again, we never, ever, run discounts. We never have any sort of sales. So this is huge. We're not a personalized strategy. If you want just help there's so much content out there online. There's so many tips and sometimes it's very easy to get lost in all of that and if you feel like you just need a personalized session, you need some help with your social media you can book a one on one call with me for 20% off. Like I said, very limited time, only through the end of this month. But in addition to the call, you get the entire call recorded, so you don't have to just remember all of it. I will send you that recording so you can go back and watch that session as many times as you want. So that is something that you would like. Like I said, 20% off with the code welcome 20. Okay, you have to use welcome 20. Go to TJ dash creative calm. Go to the shop page under one on one. Use code welcome 20 for 20% off on a one on one call with me.
Speaker 2:And now back to the episode. So I want to kind of jump into your expertise. Really, I want to just talk about some tips for social media, how businesses can stand out, and I really wanted to start with building authority on social media. That is, I feel, like a big topic, right positioning yourself as an authority figure or your business, I should say, as an authority figure on social media. Can you kind of explain what that means? Like what really is brand authority?
Speaker 3:Brand authority means something for, just means something different for different brands. Right, so in different spaces it definitely looks different. But at the end of the day, brand authority is essentially showing up as a leader in your space. And the way that can look different is, you know, sometimes you look like a leader because you know the most, or sometimes you look like the leader because you have the most connections, or sometimes you look like a leader because of x, y and z, and so understanding what authority looks like in your industry is really important to start there and then to go ahead and say, okay, what does my audience value most in what I do, or my specialty, and really beginning to tap into that in order to appear and grow into that authority space within your niche.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what would you say are like some of the values I guess that that brings, like when you do position yourself in your brand as an authority figure, like what's the return they like? What's the reasoning as to why a brand might want to do that?
Speaker 3:Well, when you show up as an authority and you really step into that space, what that does for your audience is it allows them to look at you in a different light. So they're looking at you and saying, okay, she really knows her stuff, I'm going to trust what she's saying or what they're saying. So, for example, there's in like the esthetician space. There's an esthetician, savanna Bota aesthetics. She's like a really great esthetician. She's actually who I go to, but I didn't even know. She was so big on social when I started going to her and since going to her I've seen, I've like learned more about other people in the space and it is so interesting because it really applies to any niche industry where you know she is growing in her space.
Speaker 3:She's this authority figure because she shows up consistently, she builds community. She is so personal and raw and real with her audience that it builds a genuine relationship Versus other aestheticians in her space, for example, who maybe are just kind of talking about Product and don't really put a face to the business. They don't really build that connection and so what they're leaving on the table is that that audience, who are young women right, who go to aestheticians, who really want to build a relationship with the service provider that they're seeing. They want to know that this person is like them and they have similarities, and that's really what, in Savannah's case, she does really really well, and so I think that like lesson can be applied across the board, where Understanding what your audience is looking for and being able to fill that gap Especially if other people in your space aren't allows you to really step into that authority, is there anything that you do or any like tips or tactics?
Speaker 1:I guess you have to help pull those things out of your clients. Is there some things like that you would have them do to kind of get comfortable with that?
Speaker 3:That's such a good question. Yeah, so for us, when we're working with brands and clients who we want to I mean really at the end of the day, like that's always the goal is to step into more of an authority space we really try and dig into a lot of their brand story. Because when you can start sharing more of that personal background even like my background in design, for example like that is Random and that's not like what you expect as the brand story of a marketing agency but when you can start pulling out like those more personal, different details, you Begin to stand out and that draws attention right. And so when we're beginning to work with a client, we really try and dig into their brand story. Why did you start?
Speaker 3:What did that journey look like? Do you have photos of your day one? Do you have photos of your journey along the way? Are we still in the journey? Like, are we still in the beginning of the journey? Amazing, start documenting more, because we're gonna need this in a year or two, yeah, and so really kind of zooming out and looking at the bigger picture so that you can create these micro stories along the way and begin to tap back into them as the journey continues. I love that. That was really good.
Speaker 2:So what are some ways? I mean, those are some tactics that I feel like you just document or that you just talked about. But what are some other ways with your clients that you have kind of been able to build that authority with their audience? Like, are there certain types of videos or certain types of content that you think work really well? Obviously it's gonna look different for each industry, but, like, what are some things that you've seen work well for your clients?
Speaker 3:Video content is definitely the key to doing this right, because, again, video really goes back to building relationships, and it's funny because I think brand authority used to be a lot more Strict and used to be a lot more well. I am this person and this is, you know, yada, yada, and it was a little bit more formal and over the past few years, it's definitely merged into this, you know, more personal space, where I actually think that one of the best brand authority Types of content is like a get ready with me video, or a day in my life video, right day in my life videos are one of my favorite brand authority types of content because it shows who you are beyond the ten seconds you're on your Instagram story. It shows you getting ready. It shows you making your breakfast. Well, do you eat the same breakfast every day, or is this like your Monday breakfast? What does your afternoon look like? What does it look like after you turn off the zoom camera at the end of the day and you go to relax right Like we're all so nosy and colluding myself, like I want to know everything, and so Not only does it show me more about your professional day, and so I know that you know what you're doing day to day and that you have busy schedule and you're like booked and busy.
Speaker 3:But now I also get a glimpse into who are you in your personal life. Are you, like you know, taking the dog for a walk? Are you picking your kids up from daycare? Like, what does your me time or your family time look like after work? And so all of that really builds into brand authority, because maybe your audience are Significantly like moms, right, so they want to probably work with other moms, and so being able to show that more like that side of your life can build more connection and, essentially, brand authority. In this world, where brands are becoming very face forward, becoming a face like being a faceless brand, is very hard to do today and so when you, you know you kind of have to have a face, the brand, and it is those elements of the face of the brand that is going to build those relationship pointers with your audience.
Speaker 2:People really want to work with either other people that are similar to them or people that they look up to or people that they Trust, which is why that there needs to be that human element with so many brands. Right, because it sounds like a little bit woo-woo, I guess, but like People understand your energy, like you know what I mean, even to the extent of like Workout classes, for an example, like I go to primarily female led classes, just because that's the energy that I want. Obviously there and there's that's the beauty of it there's a demo, a demographic for everything. But that's why you need to like learn About so many people. That's why, even on like fitness classes, they typically will have instructors and a little bio about them. Because people gravitate. Everybody gravitates towards a different type of energy, you know.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean, I couldn't agree more and it's really funny.
Speaker 3:When we look at our own client roster, I would say 90% of our clients are women and that's just always been the case because I mean, I'm, I'm the, I do all the sales for the company and I know this about myself.
Speaker 3:I just speak better with women, like I am a girl's girl, like I just know how to connect with women, and it's way harder to build that Professional relationship with a man, especially being a young woman and being taken seriously in that environment and in business and being like, well, yeah, I did build my own business and I am what. Am I gonna spend 20 minutes of this phone call convincing you that I know what I'm doing? Yeah, I'd rather talk to a woman who gets it, and I don't need to say that, sir. So you know it's. It's very interesting that a lot of our audiences are very similar to us and also being aware of that Is important because then, if you begin to tap into what makes you you and what makes you different, those things that are different about you are actually probably the things you have in common with your audience.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I want to dive back into video content. I know we touched on it a little bit, but I really want to get into, like, the different types of content. Like, do you notice a difference on like what works well between the different types of platforms? Like, what types of video content performs better on what platform?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely so. On Tiktok it's much more raw and real. We want unedited, we want no makeup, we want crying in the bathroom, we want disaster. That's why we go to TikTok. But if you were to think about posting any of that type of content over on Instagram, it would be Huge cringe. No like, I don't want to do it, I don't want to see it, I don't want it there. That's not why I'm on Instagram. That's why most people are not on Instagram or not on Instagram looking for that type of content. So on Instagram it still is Fairly curated. So while we do like more of the day in the life, come with me. Here's what's going on. It has to be filtered, it has to be curated for the platform, and so one of the biggest mistakes I see is when people are like going all in on TikTok and they go well, I can just repurpose this over on Instagram. I create the video on TikTok, I post over on Instagram, or vice versa, and that strategy it really doesn't work. It's not going to yield the results that you're looking for, because your audience is looking for something different on each platform and you have a different audience on every platform as well. So that's kind of the biggest difference between those two.
Speaker 3:Video content on Pinterest is doing really well Also, but it's much more educational content. So a get ready with me video Maybe you post on Pinterest to link the product, but you're really not telling a personal story and building community and relationships there. You're more so talking about the product and you're educating them on. While I'm using this eye shadow to do this, I look and so here's the link to the product or the blog post. Right, talk more about it in my affiliate link is in the blog. So it's kind of you could have the same and this is something people don't really realize. You might hear oh well, you can't cross post. You can't post the same content across the platforms, but you can actually have the same base idea for your video, but you can execute it differently for every platform.
Speaker 2:That's what I was just gonna ask you, like how are you able, with your clients, or how are you advising people to Post on let's use those three as an example on all three of those without it being Insanely time-consuming? Right, because we say that kind of stuff and I think it's very daunting to people listening being like oh my god, do I have to film three completely different videos and edit them? That's three times the work. Right? Like how are you able to do this for your client in a way that makes sense, in a time-saving type of way?
Speaker 3:Yeah, really, it comes down to budget. At the end of the day, when we're serving brands, it's like, well, what's the budget here and how much can we do with this? Because it's better to post something than nothing within certain Understandings of the platform. Right, like you're not gonna post something wild for no reason just to say you posted it. But if you have a day in the life video that is fine to post between Instagram and TikTok, get them post. Get it posted to both platforms.
Speaker 3:Don't stress about at the end of the day you might omit certain content. Like for us, if we're serving a brand on both TikTok and Instagram, we are typically creating for TikTok first and then moving some of that content to Instagram when we feel it's appropriate, because but not all of it exactly because trends also don't all move from TikTok to Instagram, but they do typically start on TikTok. So if you create for TikTok first and then you consider Two, three, four weeks later which of those trends are moving, then hitting to Instagram, you can then move some of that content to Instagram or find the content that would blend well between the two, so that you're not having to Start from scratch on every single video and on top of that, you're probably posting less to Instagram. Many are to TikTok, so that helps along the way to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Do you ever like? Sometimes I will re-edit things, like I'll use the same base footage and Re-edit it, or pull like voiceover clips, or like some of them. I'll use like I'll do a voiceover, maybe on TikTok, and then I'll use like music or something on Instagram. Like I'll just make little tweaks and little edits that I think make sense per platform, but that don't require me to completely Refilm everything you know yeah, that, no, that's a great point.
Speaker 3:We do the exact same thing. So if we're posting a day in the life between the two platforms, I should have mentioned that what we're typically doing is Utilizing that base video. So we'll create it in something like in-shot, like I love using in-shot so you're creating it outside the app, so you do have that base video and then you can move it into TikTok, put the TikTok fonts on top of it at a trending audio in the background on TikTok, and then, when you're putting it over on Instagram, you're gonna basically redo that process over on that app as well, because you don't really want to use content that has the other platforms Once right. You know, yeah, they know that the algorithm knows where it came from and it's going to kind of push it down and hide it a little bit more Than you'd like to. So definitely, recreating you know kind of the edit to it is a great way to Be able to repurpose more content than not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, are there any? I want to go through kind of like the different phases, but I think typically video content is usually used heavily in the awareness kind of phase of Content. Are there any specific videos that you think do really well recently, like that Help reach a larger amount of people? I mean obviously like utilizing sounds and kind of going with the trends and things like that. But are there any things that you see kind of across the board being like this does great at increasing reach?
Speaker 3:Well, obviously, trends are going to help you increase reach, right, because they're being favored by the algorithm already, and so you're kind of tapping into something that you already know is on a good trajectory. The other pieces of content, I again, you know it's so different between accounts and between industries, but I'm just seeing this big wave away from educational content. Yeah, so leaning much more into entertainment and looking at your life and your brand almost as A reality show, right. So Danny Austin of Divi she is a great example of doing this and she she's based in Dallas, where I am as well, and she literally her Instagram stories are like watching little previews of, like a real housewise of Dallas, like it's.
Speaker 3:She's so entertaining. Her husband will like film her during the day. It almost feels behind the scenes, but then she'll do a selfie video as well and it's just kind of like these chaotic moments in her life and Even though that's not you know, it's not a feed post or anything like that those that story content Keeps you coming back for more. You feel like you genuinely know her, you feel like you understand her personality and she very, very rarely even mentions Divi on her story and that is literally like how she lives her life like that is.
Speaker 2:I love that you brought that up because I totally agree. I don't think educational content is nearly as valuable or like creates the relationship or like creates the results that it used to. I I agree. I think it's very much going in the way of entertaining. That's not to say you can't do any educational content, but I think it needs to be woven into a story or woven into like something that Is entertaining. Now, as we're saying that, I'm sure there are business owners listening being like how do I create educational or entertaining content Like that's not. I'm not a media company. How do you do that? So how are you doing that with your clients? Like, how are you making content that Is entertaining when it is, at the end of the day, a business, right, it's not a personality?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's I mean, there's a lot of ways to do it. A lot of what we do is utilize trends and so when you can apply that trend and kind of put like your own brand spin on it, that really allows you to tap into it. So there might be a trending sound that's, you know, talking about like the journey along the way. We were just making a video for like ourselves, for 95 media, and it was kind of like about the journey. And what I love about trends is that at its core, it's a trend. But when you can start to look at a trending sound and really get your wheels turning which is, you know, what any marketer is doing is you're getting your wheels turning and saying how does this apply to us? How can we make this our own? How can we do this differently than what we've seen other people do? Then you're really beginning to look at it uniquely, because you don't want to just copy a trend, to say you copied it, like to say you did the trend right. You want to really say how can I make this ours, make this entertaining for my audience and, at the end of the day, drive interest to our business?
Speaker 3:So, thinking about when you're looking at entertaining content, I would really encourage you to look at the characters that are in the business.
Speaker 3:So characters might be employees, or it might be like the office pet, or it might be the funny mailman who comes on Tuesdays and begin to think about who are these people that we can introduce to our audience that don't make us have to get really personal, like we're not going home with the founder and we're not eating dinner with his family, but we are looking at everyone in the office and we're looking at what are those quirky, funny things that are happening throughout the day and integrating them into our content. Weaving that storytelling and education, as you said, is such a great way to marry those two sort of pillars of marketing. The three pillars that I really love looking at when it comes to marketing are educational, vulnerable and validating, and what we're seeing, you know, in the past it used to be. They were all very individual and now they've all become so interwoven with each other because business and personal life there's really no hard line anymore and we're seeing that in the way that brands are marketing themselves today too.
Speaker 2:I also like that you had mentioned that Danny Austin doesn't talk about her brand on her stories that much, because I think that's also kind of a testament to the importance of the different phases of marketing, right, like, the stuff that is intended to reach a large audience is usually the entertaining stuff, and a lot of the times, like, if I even think about like viral content if you're looking for a video to go viral on TikTok, it probably you probably shouldn't even talk about your business. You know what I mean. Like your business and your product and your service is probably not even mentioned in the video. The whole idea of that video is to bring people to your page, where then they will learn about your product or your service. But you can't really make that viral content or that content that is supposed to reach a new audience while also trying to sell to them, because then you're missing that entire like relationship building phase. Right, you can't really have both of those in the same piece of content.
Speaker 3:I totally agree with you. I mean, that is the majority of viral content, and it's so funny because whenever I see a viral video on TikTok, I'm probably going back to the creators page and then I see what they do and I'm like you, do what I have nothing to do with what they just made.
Speaker 2:The piece of content about, right it's usually not.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's that girl, a strawberry milk mob or something like that, where she does the I love men because our number number 55 reason I love men. And she, I mean, I've watched so many of her videos. They're so funny. She designs bathing suits and I'm like, well, I wouldn't know.
Speaker 2:I saw you know what's? A really good example of it that just happened last week Coastal Collective, that other company just had a video last week go kind of viral of it was like a recording of a team meeting. And she goes the whole video is. So I see that there's two tickets to St Bart's being put on the company credit card. Now do we want to talk about and they've got it did so well. But if you just watch that video you would not know what they did, you would not know what this business was. But it's because that's entertaining to anyone with a job, because everybody's imagining, like either that they are on that meeting and they're like, oh my God, who would have done that? Like it just kind of resonates with literally anyone with a job which is such a wide casted net.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, and that really goes back to understanding your audience. Who are the people who are following you, what do they do, what do they value, what do they think is funny? And then beginning to tap into that with your content and then, as you said, that's your awareness kind of, and then redirecting them into okay, here's our product, here's what we saw, right.
Speaker 2:So I want to kind of jump into just the different platforms really quick, because I know not everybody has the time to be on every single platform, especially when we talk about the fact that you need kind of different content on each platform. How do you determine what platform is right for your business or your client's business?
Speaker 3:So there's two factors that I would recommend looking at when you're figuring out which platforms you should be on. The first one is, again, I feel like a broken record. It's just like it's going back to your audience. Who are they and where are they active? Are they younger? Are they, you know more, gen Z? Obviously you need to be on TikTok If they're a bit older, if they're over the age of like 50, the majority of them then TikTok is just not needed for you.
Speaker 3:So, understanding your audience and understanding who they are at their core, step number one and number two is your content bandwidth, and this is the one that I think people don't actually consider enough.
Speaker 3:Because, sure, your audience might be young and your audience is Gen Z, or maybe you're trying to tap into Gen Z because that hasn't been your audience in the past.
Speaker 3:But if your content bandwidth aka your marketing team, or if it's just you or your assistant or your husband who takes your videos, at the end of the day, if your content bandwidth is not going to meet the demands of the platform that you want to be active on, then that is not a platform that you should be on. Then you should figure out how to capitalize on the platforms you already are on or go deeper on. You know a new platform that has less demands from you. A lot of people want to be on TikTok and there's a lot of TikTok accounts that are started and you can't go through with them because you can't meet the demands of the platform. So those two factors are really important to look at, but I would argue that content bandwidth is probably more important than anything, because that also changes over time, you know, and you have to be in tune with that over time and in different seasons of your life and your business and be able to plan accordingly too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's such a good point too, because I think there's so many people online that are like be on every platform, you need to be on every platform. And it's like no, because you're going to burn out, you're going to reach a point, you're going to start it and you might start strong. And then you're going to be like oh shit, like I can't make five pieces of content for three different platforms. I just don't have the bandwidth to do that. And then you're like what, like, what was the purpose right? Like then it's just, why are you doing it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and spreading yourself too thin to get poor results is not going to be worth it in the long run. Being on every platform is not, should not be the goal. It should be to be really great at a handful of those platforms.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. I think that is just about everything we wanted to cover. Was there anything else that is just burning on your mind that you want to talk about?
Speaker 3:No, I mean, I think you know, obviously we're entering a new year pretty soon and I don't know when this episode's coming out, but like relatively around this time and when you know you're thinking about the new year, I just think it's important to always go back to what worked this past year and also what didn't, because the last times we're scared to look at what didn't work.
Speaker 3:But that data is really important to look at, going into the new year and saying, okay, well, maybe we tried our hand at Pinterest this year and so we didn't work the way that we thought it was. Why didn't it work? Maybe we didn't have the right team, or maybe we didn't have the right content, or maybe it just isn't the right platform for our audience. But understanding those answers gives you a lot of information going forward to make that educated, informed decision and not just keep doing what you're doing, because social media moves so fast that if you're doing it the same way you were doing it six months ago, you're not going to be excelling, and so it's important to always be looking at your analytics and always readjusting along the way, based on the information you have at hand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so true. It's like if you don't, if you're not actively learning, you're falling behind. Exactly, yeah, perfect. Well, emma, I appreciate this so much. Where can everybody find you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I am super active over on Instagram. We are 90.5.media, all spelled out. Our website is 95mediaco and we also have a podcast called Stop Scrolling, start Scaling, where we have lots of marketing tips over there as well. But we are, we are on all of the things.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us for this episode, and we'll talk to you guys later. Thank you for having me. Bye.