This week I’m chatting with Teah Hopper, digital marketing strategist, about all things social media. Visit Teah’s page at Teah Hopper Consulting and learn more about video marketing.

Show Notes – Time Details:

3:46 — Teah Hopper introduction

6:01 — Developing a social media strategy

7:42 — Posting regularly on social media

8:57 — Paying for ads to increase views

11:08 — Utilizing Facebook Live

13:21 — Different content for different audiences

17:19 — Branded video content

19:18 — Created vs. shared content

20:57 — Promoting posts while saving money

25:25 — Engaging with followers

Resources:

Facebook: Teah Hopper Consulting

Teah Hopper website

The Hatchery

Transcription:

Let’s jump into this. First of all, those of you on my personal page, some of you probably don’t even know what I do. Basically, Cosmic Sauce is our video marketing agency, and really, all that means is we help businesses create video content and then actually do something with that content. And in today’s day and age, the best way to do something with that content is social media, specifically, social media marketing. And so that’s what we specialize in doing. And I had the opportunity to meet Teah at a networking meeting and learn a little bit more about what she does and learning more about in the social media space and thought this would be a great opportunity for us to come together and really do a first dual Facebook Live. I know this is a first for me, being able to bring someone on. It’s something that when I decided this year in 2018 I was going to do a weekly, somewhat weekly Facebook Live show. As business owners, we definitely get busy. I wanted to bring people on that could definitely add value to our audience, which is business owners, marketing folks that are really just trying to figure it out, because as we just talked about, I mean, technology’s changing so fast, right? There’s so much to figure out, and so that’s really why we’re here today. So, Teah, why don’t I give you a chance to introduce yourself and tell people what you do.

– Sure, yeah, and I was thinking the same thing, being on my personal page. It’ll be interesting too because I think there’s probably a lot of people that still don’t know exactly what I do. And even when I tell them, they still don’t always know exactly what I do.

– Right?

– I own Teah Hopper Consulting. So I help brands, companies, business owners basically craft, kind of as you said, craft their story, figure out what their story is, and then tell that story on social media. They’re on the right channels, at the right time, to the right people, because it’s all about connecting with your target audience and making sure you’re spending your time well on social. So that’s really what I do. I like to work individually with people, figure out their brand, what social media platforms work best for them, and then help them develop a game plan so that they can use social media in a way that is strategic, is smart, and is fun. I think, you know, sometimes social media becomes so overwhelming and we make it so hard, and at the end of the day, I mean, it’s social media, it’s meant to be fun, it’s meant to be a place where you connect with people you like, and you share, and you collaborate. That’s what I try to do and have a lot of fun doing.

– I’ve got to give. Everybody’s probably wondering, like what? These are not my watercolors that are behind me. My friend, Amanda Quick– I got to give her a shoutout at The Hatchery– let me stop in today. I had to have a quick little meeting with her, and she let me use this space. So if you’ve not checked out The Hatchery, please do so, it’s an amazing co-working space with childcare if you need it, a lot of cool people here doing cool things. This is her art, and it’s quite cool. So definitely, a big thank you to her. But, Teah, when it comes to social, what are the biggest mistakes people are making? We could probably talk for a half hour about this. I see a lot of things going wrong. There seems to be there’s a status quo of how to do social, and I think that that’s changed. I think that what used to work doesn’t really work. Or even just your perspective on, when you talk about a strategy, putting it together, like what that looks like. But I see a lot of mistakes and I would love to hear your thoughts on that.

– Yes, there’s so many, I think you’re right. The first thing that comes to mind is that people try to be all things, all people, and they try to be in all places. So they end up being in all places but not really being there, not really being present, not really having a presence that’s effective, that’s working, that’s speaking to their audience. And so then they get burnt out and they just don’t do anything at all. So I think that’s one. They get gung ho, they get excited, or maybe they get a marketing person and they’re really focused on, and then they kind of fizzle out. I think that’s one thing that, you know, people are trying to just do too much. It’s so much better to focus, like I said, to come up with a strategy, figure out where would be the best place to spend your time based on your goals and based on your audience. And then really focus there and really implement a strong strategy that’s going to work than trying to do it all. I think that’s one. I think not having a game plan or strategy at all, so just posting and then they get frustrated because, as we know, with Facebook’s algorithm, now Instagram has an algorithm, your content has to be thoughtful, it has to be engaging because people aren’t going to see it. Just throwing things up and not thinking about that and just kind of doing social media on a whim doesn’t typically work well. So definitely, I always recommend, and I’ll get into more, as you said, what that strategy looks like. But taking the time. I mean, if you can take a few weeks or a month to develop a strategy, then the rest of your year is going to be set and your social media efforts are going to be so much more worthwhile because you’ve taken the time to really think through what’s going to work for you on social. So I think that’s another one. And then just not posting consistently. Social media is all about consistency. You can do something really well and have some momentum, and then if you don’t post for a while, you have to kind of almost start all over and get that momentum going again. So that goes along with that strategy and game plan too. If you can have a system for you, whether that’s a content calendar or something where you’re planning it out, then that will allow you. I mean, we were talking about this earlier. Even myself, I mean, if I don’t sit down at the beginning of the week and think through, it doesn’t take more than an hour to think through, like what am I going to post? And get some stuff on the scheduler or at least put it on my calendar so I know what I need to post that day. It just doesn’t happen. So I think in order to be successful, you do have to have a plan and a strategy. And so what does that strategy look like? Do you want to get into that? Or do you have another question?

– No, that was going to be my next question because I think a lot of people know, I need to be doing something, but Facebook’s changed. I know at the beginning of the year, the algorithm changed, we got a lot of questions about, what does that mean to me? And my personal take on that was, nothing really changed too much in that if you’re a brand, if you’re a business, you got to pay for reach. I mean, Facebook’s been going this way for a while, and they basically just said, “Hey, we want to make sure people enjoy our platform. We’re going to make sure they see more stuff from the people they care the most about.” And if your brand is talking about yourself, you’re going to see less of that. And so you need to continue, because this is what you should have been doing anyway. You need to continue to create content that matters, that people want to engage with, and then on the advertising side, nothing changed in that if you’re willing to pay for content and that your ads are relevant. Now, if your ads are not relevant, you’re going to be penalized. My whole take on it was like, stop freaking out because organic has kind of went by the wayside now with the exception, in my opinion, Live is a way to win when it comes to organic. So getting businesses to embrace Live, hence I’m trying to walk the walk, talk the talk in that Live’s been around for a while, but I’ve never done a live video until 2018. If I’m being honest, we create a lot of video content. It’s embracing the tools that are out there. That’s been the conversations that we’re having. I’m curious to hear your take on it.

– That’s the exact same thing I told people. It didn’t really change so much. You had to create content that was meaningful to your audience for them to want to engage with it because it’s all about engagement. So the more comments and shares a post gets, the more people will see it. It’s really a good thing if you think about it from a personal use of social media. They’re trying to make sure that their time spent on Facebook is meaningful, that you don’t just scroll for 30 minutes and leave feeling like, “What did I just do “with the last 30 minutes of my life?” where you get on, you have meaningful conversations, interactions, and then you get off and you get back to the real world. So it’s exactly what you said, is making sure that content’s meaningful, it connects with your audience, provides value, and we can get into what that really means because sometimes that just goes over people’s heads. It’s doing what Facebook wants you to do and playing the game. That is promoting your content, boosting posts, running ads. You don’t have to have a huge marketing budget. I did a Facebook Live video a couple weeks ago. I boosted it for $5, and I had more views, comments, people private messaging me about that, but it was just a little bit of the push to make sure that people saw it. And so that is one, and then the other really easy way to win, as you said, is Facebook Live. Facebook wants you to go live. It’s the best way to organically reach people. Notifications are going to be sent. When you go live, it’s going to continue to be in their feed afterwards. And if people comment on it, it’s just going to continue to be out there. Facebook Live is definitely another way to really make sure that your content’s being seen. And video in general, and I know we’ll talk more about this. It’s just such a powerful way to connect with your audience. It’s a way for you to be authentic and real, for them to really see you. I mean, aside from face-to-face communication, it is the best way to connect and for people to really get to know you and who you are. And with Live even more so because there’s no editing. I’m a perfectionist, and so same for me, you know, when you said, yeah, you weren’t really walking the walk, and when I finally made myself do it, the first one was so hard. But then I really enjoyed it. It was almost kind of like when you get up on the stage and you give a speech, kind of that. But what I love about it now is it’s a really quick and easy way for me to share whatever that message is. I mean, it takes me a lot longer to write a blog post, and I edit it, and I edit it, and I edit it. Facebook Live, I get on, there’s no editing, it’s done. Then you move on. So I’ve started to really love it for those reasons. But yeah, just kind of going back to the strategy that I try to follow for clients when it comes to social media is one, what are your goals? What are your business goals? What are your marketing goals? What are your goals for social media? Because if you don’t know what they are, you’re just spinning your wheels, and it doesn’t matter where you go or what you do with it because you don’t have any way to measure your success. So that’s where I really try to get people. It doesn’t have to be hard, you know? But are you trying to increase your brand awareness? Or are you trying to get more people to your website? I mean, those are different types. You’re going to produce different types of content and go about it differently depending on what you’re trying to do with there. And then the next thing I look at is, who is your audience? And I think this is so important. Who are you trying to reach? Is it millennials? Is it retired people? Depending on the age and male and female, whatever your audience is, the answer I’m going to want to give is to everybody.

– Yes, that’s the worst thing you could do.

– Yeah, exactly. Okay, fine, maybe you want to reach everybody, but let’s break that down.

– Well, you better have a lot of money if you’re trying to market to everybody, you better have a big budget. I know most people we work with, not happening. They’re trying to move the needle one step at a time.

– So once you figure out who your target audience is, then you can look at what social media platforms are best for you. Is it Facebook? Is it Instagram? Is it LinkedIn? And then you can really start to craft content and create content based on that audience. And that’s where I think you can really win, is thinking through, okay, if it’s a 30 to 35-year-old mother, we can create content knowing, what questions does she have that you can answer? How can you make her life easier? What pain points does she have? That’s when you can create content that they’re scrolling through and they see it and it doesn’t feel like an ad, it just feels like, “Oh, this is great content– information I want to know.” So that’s where I usually have a good ol’ brainstorm session. And then it doesn’t have to be hard, and come up with three or four types of content, whether it’s a video or a graphic or a blog that they can create or I can help them create that’s going to help their audience see their stuff and want to connect with them. So you’re no longer chasing them down. You’re bringing them to you. Yeah, no, and I think to hear you say, like branded content, like that’s to create content that doesn’t feel like an ad, and that’s probably a good transition. That’s where video can win. It really can. I mean, obviously, I’m the video guy, and that’s what I’m going to say, but I just see there’s a huge opportunity for anyone out there. I mean, we always talk about a blend of polished, branded stuff that you potentially hire someone like us for, but then mixing in user-generated content. There’s a place for both in that you should look to a production company or a video marketing, someone to help for first impressions. You come to the website, it’s a lot like dating. It’s I always say, the first impression, and if you really want, the prospect to potentially marry you, do business with you for a long time, that iPhone shaky video of you talking in your car probably is not what you want to put out there on a first impression. But if you’re at a trade show floor and you can come up and do a quick interview or do a Facebook Live from a trade show floor, if you’re a sales rep, all that makes all the sense in the world. I would love to get your thoughts on video as a branded content tool and maybe where you see success or see that working.

– Well, I think, one thing I kind of didn’t mention before the goal is the target audience is really about helping people figure out their story. And I think that’s something we have in common. It’s so much more. Your brand is so much more than your logo, and that’s why I get with people, I meet with people, and I talk about their brand and they give me their logo, and it’s like, okay, what does that mean? And if you can’t put that into words, then we still have some work to do because your brand is really that feeling that people get whenever they see your logo or they see your company or they hear your name. You have a personal brand, you have a business brand. Your brand is really your story. And so you have to be able to put that into words. What are your values? What makes you different from your competitors? There’s no better way to tell your story than through video? Video is, I think, so amazing right now because it allows you to really connect with your audience in an authentic way. I could write blog posts all day and you could read those words, but it’s just missing something. Aside from being face to face with someone, video is just the best way to tell your story, to connect with your audience, but then to really get a sense of what it’s like to work with you. I think I completely agree with you. It’s really nice to have a brand video that tells your story, a two-minute video that really gives people that idea of who you are, what you do, what your business does. And then from there you can do all kinds of video that’s more maybe not so high quality, but that allows you to tell your story on a daily basis, I guess.

– Kind of give me where else you think, when it comes to social, I mean, if I’m a business owner and I’m committed to making this work and I have thought this through, I do have an editorial calendar, I understand my brand a bit, maybe I’m working with you. Where do I go from there? How do I really get to where I want to go? Maybe talk about budgets a little bit too. Next step, alright, I’m posting content that is relevant, and what posts should I look to promote? We don’t have to get too much into like the technical side of how to promote, but I think it’s understanding when you’ve got a winner, what to do with it.

– So there’s two different types of content, right? There’s the content that you create, and then there’s content you share or curate. And I always tell people, you should do a mix of both. You’re trying to position yourself as a subject matter expert in whatever it is that you do. So there’s nothing wrong with sharing content. I shared some of your stuff before, great stuff because I don’t know it all. And I don’t have time to share it all. Curating some of that stuff. But I think any type of post or content that you take the time to create. So if you write a blog post or if you create a video, if you do a Facebook Live, that’s the type of stuff that you want to be promoting. So that’s kind of one way to look at it, and that’s why I typically try to, if I’m going to write a blog or do a video, then I’m going to make sure I have a little bit of money in my budget to promote that. The other way you can do it is if you have a post that you put out that’s just really doing well organically, then you know you’ve got a winner, then I would go back and promote that. And sometimes it’s good to put it out there for a day or two and just kind of let it percolate and see and then come back in a few days later and boost that and support that with a little bit of money. That’s one way to do it. Another really similar way to kind of get more eyes on that is to share it to your personal page. I don’t recommend doing that with every post, but if you’ve got something that you think is really valuable, occasionally, you can share that to your personal page and get some more eyes on it, then hopefully, people are going to see the value you’re providing on your business page and they’ll like it. So that kind of answers, you had a question before that though with video, I think. How to put that into the plan.

– Yeah, I think people get hung up on how much to spend. You gave me an example earlier. I mean, you spend $5 on a post, and that’s where I tend to tell folks. If you can set aside $10 a day, you can do a lot, you can do a lot. A $300-a-month budget dedicated to social with you’ve got a commitment to creating some of your own content and putting things out that are relevant, you can make a huge dent on the awareness side. If you want people to know who you are, you can really move the needle.

– I agree, I think that’s the minimum. If you can spend 20 or 30 on a post, that’s even better. I think, when it comes to video and just producing your own content, I think if you could aim for one a week, like you said you were trying to do one a week. For me, I’ve been trying to do either a blog or a video a week. So it’s original content I’ve created, my voice, my thoughts, and I boost that. So I think, with video, if you could try to do one a week, if you could try to do a Live. But it does take time to step back and think, what am I going to talk about? If this is a series, what is it about? If you’re going to do guests, booking them in advance. If you can do it regularly, like if you can do it every Wednesday at 9 AM, that’s even better because then people will start to watch for it. And if you can look at your Facebook insights and figure out when your audience is online and pick a time that they’re going to most likely be online, that’s even better. You don’t have to. I know we’ve talked about that earlier. A lot of the value will come in people watching the replay. If you can’t quite commit to that schedule, that’s okay. But that’s another way to make sure that more people are seeing it. But more than anything, it’s about, yeah, thinking through it ahead of time and then putting it on a calendar of some kind, setting your reminder or whatever so that you don’t forget about it. I schedule posts a lot, which I think is helpful for me. I typically, on Sunday nights, will schedule posts for the week, but I also leave some room and I think about my week and I think, okay, I’m going to be at The Hatchery on Wednesday, what could I maybe capture that just shows what it’s like for me on a daily basis in my business? Because I do think you need a mixed. I think it’s fine to schedule and it’s a great resource to be able to utilize, but I do think you want to capture things in real time or else it just kind of starts to usually feel a little stale.

– Right. And obviously, we talked about engagement. I would like anyone here please like the Cosmic Sauce page, like Teah Hopper Consulting, like your page, please do that if you’ve found this helpful. I would encourage folks to share, like, comment, share, that’s always what helps you the most. When it comes to video, for me, it’s not so much about views. It really is engagement. Like that’s the metric that I care the most about that I coach our clients on. That’s what matters. It’s not whether this thing went viral, because let’s be honest, most of everything you do is small. The chances of you going viral is so slim, you know? I mean, Dollar Shave was amazing. The chances of that being you, not very high. Not saying it’s impossible, but you can take steps week in and week out to get people to know what your brand is and to know more about your business, and really, to me that’s where you win the most. Video and social, you can humanize your brand. You start to see like, “Man, they’re pretty cool. “I just want to do business with them.” and then you start to come up in conversations. “Oh yeah, you should talk to…” in our case, “those guys about a video.” Or about digital, whatever. I think that’s what you’re really trying to do, is you’re trying to be, it’s advertising. You want to be top-of-line. And this is a very effective tool if you can put in the time. ‘Cause I think maybe that’s the other piece, just the time factor. You talked about, when you look at your own week, but I think that’s an important thing for businesses to understand, is that somebody’s got to be paying attention to this.

– It’s so important. I think, for whatever reason, people have this idea that they’re just going to like do it and it’s going to be easy and they’re going to get all these likes and followers. It takes time. It takes time on the daily basis, but it takes time to build. I mean, it’s just like if you’re doing it the right way and you’re trying to get the right people. Now, you could run some ads and just get a whole bunch of new likes to your page, but they probably aren’t the right people. So then your engagement’s going to be low. So to really make sure you’re attracting the right people, I mean, it is a day in and day out, it’s building relationships, which takes time, but it’s worth it to do it the right way because then you end up having people on your page that do want to be there, that are interested in the information that you’re posting. You can do a video and you can ask, you can answer questions in the comments and get ideas for what else would be helpful for them. It does take some time, but it’s completely worth it. But I agree, you have to have somebody that’s there just every day keeping an eye on things because it’s just like if you’re a business. If someone calls you and you don’t return their phone call, you’ve lost that customer. I mean, if someone asked a question on your Facebook page and you don’t answer the question, they’re probably going to go somewhere else. It’s important to have someone there that’s monitoring it, and, as you said, humanizing your brand, having that conversation online. I mean, Twitter is a great example. Companies are using Twitter for customer service. I mean, you’re delayed at the airport, you can get quicker customer service on Twitter than going to the desk, but that’s a poor service desk. So that’s a great example of how you can win online and help your current customers, hopefully win new ones through social media, but it’s all about relationships and being present and being real, being authentic and just being there, just being there every day.

– Yeah, sure, so you can, as Johnny said, you can like my Facebook page, Teah Hopper Consulting, you can go over to my website, which is TeahHopper.com. You can reach out to me via Facebook messenger. You can send me an email, Teah@TeahHopper.com. Any of those ways works. Yeah, I would love to help you out with your social media. I work with companies of all sizes. You know, I mentioned earlier, business and personal branding. Thanks so much for having me, this has been fun. It’s been fun to talk about social media.

– It has been fun. And then again, this is the first time I’ve went live on my personal page. Those of you that have no idea what I do, please go to, now, this is probably like most of my family, you have no idea what I do, go to Cosmic Sauce, it’s not a barbecue sauce, find Cosmic Sauce on Facebook, CosmicSauce.agency is where you can find us. You would do us both a favor if you guys could please check out our respective pages and give us a like there. Thank you very much, guys, for joining us, and I will see you guys next week on Video Marketing Insights. And thanks again, Teah.