It's that time of year where we start thinking about how to refresh
our social media channels. And in this podcast
episode, I have Peg Fitzpatrick on the show to chat with us
about how and when we should think about our CPR,
revitalizing our social media channels. I'm excited to dive
into episode number 330 of the Mindful Marketing podcast.
But first, I have to give a special thank you to our sponsor,
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I'm excited to welcome Peg Fitzpatrick on the show today.
Peg, welcome. Great
intro. Thank you. Thank you. So much for having me.
I'm so excited to be on your show. Yes. I'm excited to chat with you
because I am a longtime fan. I remember following you back in the
day, when I started my, business in 2014.
But tell me more about how you got started in the world
of social media marketing. Oh, god. We're going
back so far. It is so far. So I actually got
started. It's kind of a funny story. It's a long story, so I'll make it
really short. But, I was accompanying my husband on a
dinner with his bosses that were over from Europe,
and they were talking about marketing plans.
And European marketing is different than American marketing. It's just
they what they do is different. What they talk about is different. Language from
German doesn't always translate exactly to American in a, like, a
normal conversation way even though it's it's, like,
sort of grammatically correct. Sometimes their translations are very off
and bad when they so we were talking about
marketing things, and I just started I did not work for the company, but I
just started you know, it was like North End in Boston,
drinking a lot of red wine. And I just started, like, throwing out all these
marketing ideas. Wow. This is what I think would be amazing. And I
just was like, there's this new thing called Facebook, which tells you how long ago
the center was. There's a new thing called Facebook and businesses are making
Facebook pages and connecting with their audiences and, you know,
building. People are following them and it's a great way to connect with
people. And then, like, 6 months later, they were like, hey. We wanna
hire Peggy to come and do this product launch. And I was like, I had
to like remember all my stuff. I was like, what did I pitch? Because I
wasn't really even pitching. I was just talking. I think people who love
marketing and this is really in the early days of social media, but I had
done traditional marketing before. But I think if you're a marketer,
like if someone says, hey, what do you think about, and then your
brain just goes and then you start coming up with a 1000000 ideas
and that's what I did. So, I started out with this
huge product launch at a Vegas trade show
and I needed to fill a huge room to bring
people in to hear about this product at a trade show. So it was like
traditional, but I used social media to get there. So I
use social media, I got people's email addresses. I started
talking about this new product and we not only filled the room, we
exceeded it and they had to bring in more seating. We ended up with like
500 people live to hear about this product launch. So
it went like, amazing, and it was, like, a total it was a great
rock star starting moment because, you know, I
was just figuring things out. And that's kind of how it's always been for
me because I was in social media so early. Like, everything
I've wanted to do, I've had to figure it out. So then I started
my blog and, you know, I'm always figuring out how to do things on
my account. So I always say, like, accidentally built my own account base
because I was always testing things out for clients or the company
that I work for. So I've actually worked for the same company
for this whole entire time. It was part time at the beginning, so I did,
like, other things, like work with Canva.
When Canva was a little teeny baby, I worked for them when
they were a startup and I was their 1st head of social strategy.
And my job there again was like, get this company who wanted
to be bigger than a small Australian company. They wanted to
be global. They wanted to, you know, create this great product to help
people design, when they couldn't use Photoshop.
Part of their mission was, you know, Photoshop is too hard and there's too many
buttons and this tool is easier. Now there's a 1000000 buttons in
Canva, but they still maintain keeping it easy to use, and they have
tons of training stuff. So that was like one of my other first thing was
I I worked for Canva as head of social strategy and helped launch
them, you know, globally with Guy Kawasaki. And we I
think we were successful because everyone knows who Canva
is now. And they've done a million, obviously, 10 years more
work since then. Their marketing is amazing. So not just
because of me, but because they are amazing. I'm a 100%
team Canva. I remember too when I first started my business,
people did not like Canva. Like, when I told clients I designed
social graphics in Canva, like, initial reaction was like,
but now it's so commonplace. Like Right. In fact, it's preferred.
Even designers I talk to, they're like, yeah. I do some stuff in Photoshop, but
sometimes Canva is just faster. Right. Right. It it was
really you know, Adobe was for professionals and Canva was you
know, it was designers hated it, but now
everybody's using it, and brands are using it for their in house
things. I mean, it's it's used everywhere now, and I
never have been a Photoshop user. I have it, and I can do
a few things, but it's just complicated. It takes so long just to make a
graphic. Yeah. Yeah. It really does. And it's just starting from such a
blank canvas that makes it so much more challenging. Even if you have templates, you're
like, woah. It's just not easy. I think if you have it and you're great
at it, good for you. Yeah. Exactly. But it is not
me, and it never was me. And I've tried. It's hard.
Yeah. It is. We're not talking about Canvas. So the whole show, but
I do love it. Yeah. I do. Canvas stand over here. One
of the things that I wanted to really go deep with you on in this
episode was about revitalizing and, like, doing
CPR on our social channels because, social media is changing. Right?
Landscape is changing. And it's time for a bit of a refresh, especially this time
of year as we start thinking about 2025. So,
what are some of the signs, like, that we can notice when
we look at our social channels and go, oh, yep. It's time for some reviving.
Right. So if you're not getting any engagement, if there's, like,
tumbleweeds in the comments and you just you know, things feel a
little bit stale, you know, it's time to to change things up. You
can't I I actually, I saw a thing on your account where you're like you
said it in one of your videos. If you're waiting until things
are changing, you know, the train has left the station,
and it's too late. It's not coming back, and that's true. I mean, I
think Instagram in particular, you know, we all were if you've been
on Instagram for a long time, you know that it just was all images and
people got so tied to making that perfect
Instagram where everything was coordinated and everything looked great,
and, boy, is it hard to break that mentality. And, also, some people
just got really good at that form, and then they're like, okay.
Now everybody has to do, you know, videos. So then everybody was
like, duh, duh, duh. Like, everybody was making the same
three videos at the beginning. It was like, no. No. This is
that marketing your brand individually. Like, that is not gonna help
your brand. So if it's feeling stale and if you're just
feeling like you've been doing the same thing for a really long time, you definitely
have to switch it up. And I think, you know, video is is
here to stay. So if you haven't been doing video, it's definitely
time to figure out a way to work on reels. And, also, I'll give a
little pitch for your class because b your b roll
class is excellent. B roll b roll is a thing that
for me, like, I don't even know why because I'm a I'm
a photographer, and I love doing stuff. But b roll,
like, on yourself, it's a little awkward, and it's a little hard to get it
started. But once you have a lot of b roll, it's totally your
friend and you can remix stuff or you can hire someone.
For my book launch, I worked with a photographer and she did a
bunch of photos, but I also had her do b roll video. So I have
professional things too. But it's really just the same kind of things that you
would film yourself working on computer, you know, doing things. And I
think once you start doing b roll that, you know, build up a
library for yourself of content of you so you
can remix it. I think that's a really, you know, it's a
good way to revive things. And also just if I mean, we're gonna go
into more detail. I don't wanna, like, spill it all in the first answer, but,
it is you know, if it if it feels like you've been making the same
thing over and over again, then it's gonna feel like that to your audience too.
So just realize that you gotta keep it fresh because there's a lot
of competition out there for entertainment and
for information and just, you know, being
here. Yeah. I think this is just such a common thing I've
been hearing from a lot of people is they do feel like they're a little
bit on this, like, hamster wheel of content creation, and they're just kind of
like spinning around doing the same things, checking the box, and going, yep. I did
it. I posted the pointing reel like I was supposed to.
And I do feel that. Pointing reel? I okay. So I have
done a few. I I feel awkward doing it. I just feel it's
same lip syncing for me. My mouth just wants to say my own thing. Like,
I just don't like lip syncing. I don't like pointing. I don't really
like dancing. So I was like, none of that is really my thing anyways.
So I tend to lean towards, you know, doing other things
anyways, which is yeah. I love that. And I
I can almost hear the listeners thinking, like, okay. I noticed things are getting
stale, but how do I, like, get that
creativity back? How do I spark that creativity? What are some of the things you
do when you think about revitalizing, refreshing, and breathing new
life into their content strategy? Good question.
Pinterest. I love Pinterest so much. You can get so many great
ideas and inspiration there. So if you're totally sale and you and
you're like, I need to like, you really knew you needed, like, the you need
CPR, create a secret board and come up with some ideas
and pin some things of things that you're inspired by. We never
wanna copy other people and other brands because it's not gonna
be authentically you, and it never works. It never ever
feels comfortable, which is part of the reason I think that the videos that people
make where they're the same ones, it gets boring because you're seeing the
same people do things. So you never wanna do that, but you can get inspiration
and do that. I am a big Swifty. Are you a Swifty by any
chance? I like Taylor Swift, but I wouldn't say I'm a Swifty. Okay. I,
I love her, and it's fine that you're not. But she is she is a
person who has done reinventions on herself. Sometimes, you
know, a lot of artists do that for, like, every album that they have, but
she had a she had a, like, little falling out thing with the Kardashians, which
goes into a whole other thing. But she, like, she literally took a year off,
and she went to Europe and she just, like, hid in this house and she
didn't even go out. She, and so when she came back, she was like, does
anybody care? Like, she did a whole whole revival on herself
and she, you know, she had a new album, she reinvented herself, and she just
came out fresh and just really hit it strong. And I think
that we can take inspiration from that because if we're, you know, revving up
and we're gonna, like, say I mean, there's 22 things that need reviving. 1,
if you're just doing a little refresh, sometimes your account is totally dead because a
lot of times small business owners just get burnt out and they stopped. So
if you're at that stage, then you wanna go in, start with a fresh
photo, do new cover photos, and just revive
your artwork, like, just come up with a new plan, get new
templates. I like to go to creative market. If you don't wanna use
Canva templates that everybody has, you can go to you can go to creative
market and find really cool stuff that isn't in Canva,
and then you could just customize that to your brand. Or you could
hire someone to create some special ones for you. So just really
look at it as a total revamp, give yourself a little bit of time, and
just think about doing like a Taylor Swift splash. You know, like, when you're
ready, just hop out there. Don't come back. The a little pet
peeve of mine that I think makes it worse is when people say, I
haven't been here for a while. I haven't you know, it's been a hot minute
since I you know, don't do, like, a reannouncement and say you've been
gone. Just reenter strong. Like, have
a content plan, plan out a week or two of content
so you know that you can be consistent, and just, you
know, just do it. If you did a really big brand refresh,
that's a great time to do just like a, hey, I redid my website everybody,
like, you know, let people know, you know, every once in a
while you do have to refresh stuff, whether it's your website, whether it's
your, profile photos. I mean, especially with all the
video now, you definitely have to have fresh profile photos because there there
can't be a disconnect between your avatar and your live
person, you know, your live video. And I still see that sometimes
and it's surprising at this stage that people, you know, yes, we all
have a great photo from 10 years ago that we like, but, you know,
it doesn't look like you now. We all age in 5 or 10 years.
It's reality. Right? Yeah. It's life.
It the the realities of life. And I I think one of the things that
is a huge compliment is when someone goes to your social and then they,
like, get on a Zoom call or whatever, and they're like, oh, you're exactly like
you are in social media. Right? I think that's that's a huge I say that
all the time. That is your goal. Right? And if you're going to an online
event and you're meeting people when they're like, you I love your blog. You look
just like you do. And you're you sound exactly like you write. And they feel
connected because we build that parasocial relationship
with people that we meet that we see online. We feel like we know
them. And if they meet you in person and you
are not anything at all like you sound on your podcast or and, you know,
people will be like, I don't that's weird. You know? Yeah. It
just it it loses the trust, any trust that you had previously
built. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Well, one of the things
too that I've noticed, because I'm in my whole I'm in my Taylor
Swift new era moment, where I'm like, I'm
heading into the next season of what it means and for me and my
business. And one of the things that keeps coming up for me is, like, this
balance between the old Andrea and, like, the new
Andrea, and also, like,
staying consistent. Because in an ideal world, I would pull a Taylor
Swift and, like, shut it all down and go hide away for a year and
come back out. But the reality of life is yeah. The reality of life is
I'm still running my business and pivoting at the same time. So how do we
balance, you know, the creativity of, like, the refresh and the reviving
with, like, our current content strategy?
So, I mean, I think, you know, you if you're if you're doing, like, a
little slow move over and you're switching your content strategy, which I
think we all do from time to time. I mean, I did the same thing,
like, switching over from my book launch. I'm like, okay. I mean, I always talk
about social media, but I'm like, I'm only focusing on small business owners. So
I think part of it is offline where you just really
hone down on what your focus is and what your brand is going to be
and if you're changing something. I think you changed name of your
program or your name. Yeah. So, I mean, that's a pretty big change and so
you're just, like, you know, get super strong with it
behind the scenes, know what all your new messaging is, and then just
bam, like, be, like, this is it. This is the new thing. Like, really just
do a launch for it and just make sure that people kind of get used
to the new name. You can even say, you know, more than once
because people don't remember things if they just hear it once, but, like, my
this this program is now this, you know, and this is why I revamped
it and talk about your process because you're a person who talks about what
you're doing. Like, talk about your process. Like, this was a thing, but
now I'm segueing. You know, I'm I'm eating my own dog food. As
they say in Silicon Valley, when you when you follow your own idea, like
because sometimes as marketers, we can be our own worst enemies and not follow our
own advice. Right? Sometimes we do that, but you're
gonna follow your own advice and just say, like, I'm moving this way.
This is the new and you could just do a little transition time where you're,
like, a little of the old, a little of the new, and then just stick
with the new and and go strong with it. And I think, you know,
if you're working with a new, I don't know if you're changing like the brand
voice of it at all, just make sure it's all super tight behind the scenes
so your plan is strong. Because if you're not sure then what you're creating
isn't gonna be exactly on point. So we do get used to,
like, a certain thing. So, yeah, just if you're if you're bumping it
up, just, you know, even just say you're taking it up a notch. Like, you
don't even have to be like, this is a change. Like, it's time for the
zhuzh. I'm here. You know? Yeah. And big fish do
this all the time. Like, I can't like, there's so many kind of, like, iterations
of brands, even like logos, websites. Like, it it's it's just part
of of business. But one thing I'm curious about too is, like, how much
impact our audience and our community has on this, like,
resuscitation process? Do, like, do we take input and feedback? What are
your thoughts? I always do take input and feedback because,
you know, you want people to like it. You don't want them to be like,
oh, this is so different. But, you know, when I redid my
website, redid my logos and stuff, I did not ask for feedback on that
because I knew what I wanted. Like, I know what I really want my
brand to look like. A lot of times authors do that with
covers. You know, they'll post multiple covers and say, like, this
is my cover, you know, these are the 3 choices, you
know, which one do you guys like the best? Because you want people to like
it and getting the audience feedback on it is really important.
When Guy and I wrote the art of social media, he loves feedback on
his book. Like, he'll send it to people, have them read it, you know,
get feedback on it, correct things. I don't like to send my
whole thing out to a whole bunch of people, but he likes that. Like, that's
his feedback process. So depending on how much feedback
you're comfortable with, like, what parts do you want feedback on, but once
you're launching, you do have to make sure that people like it. An
example, a few years ago, Starbucks redid their logo and
people hated it. Like, that's a thing, like, people roast
the brands when they do or if they try to change and people don't like
it, they ended up switching back within a week because people were like,
no way we hate it. Dunkin' Donuts did
switch from Dunkin' Donuts to just Dunkin'. Dunkin'?
Yeah. They wanted to get donuts out of there and they still use their
brand colors and theirs was not like a total fail. I
don't feel like it was a fail for them. It was kind of a weird
segue and I think they kind of ignored if people liked
I think they wanted to deemphasize the fact that they're just unhealthy
donuts, but we already all know that. Yeah. We're not going
to Dunkin' for, like, healthy stuff. Do you have healthy donuts?
Yeah. But I see this happening right now with ConvertKit going to
Kit because I'm a huge ConvertKit fan. That's where I run my email list.
Mhmm. And this is the second time they've tried to rebrand. The first time I
don't even remember what the name was. People did not like it. And then this
time, people aren't loving it. I like it. I think the
brand is tight, like, visually. The name kit to me
kit is a little generic, but I get what they're going for. And so I'm
here for it. But, like, the feedback online isn't great, and they're just full steam
ahead going with it. So Well, it's their 2nd time. They put a lot of
money into it. So they're like, we need this to work this time. If you
don't like it too bad, we don't wanna be called ConvertKit.
ConvertKit was a awkward name. It's an awkward name, but we're all used
to it. Yes. That's it. I think that's why there's a lot of pushback.
People. Yeah. Yeah. And I think people are giving pushback because it's
what we're used to. Mhmm. But I think there are times when, you
know, you just gotta go forward with it and trust your gut. I'm curious
if there are any times where, you know, we should
not revitalize something, or if we should just let it go.
So last year, for instance, I said goodbye to x formerly
known as Twitter because it just felt like it was time for me. But
what like, how do we know when it's time to just let a platform go?
I think sometimes you do have to Marie Kondo stuff and just say,
this did not work for me. I think if we were on too many platforms
and it was too much, that's certainly a
reason to do it. Sometimes you try something out, doesn't
work for you. I mean, I was on Twitter. I I still call it Twitter.
I hate the name x. I think it's terrible.
So anyway, yeah, it's it's a it's a big dumpster mess over
there. It used to be great. I mean, I think most I haven't,
like, a 100% left it, but it's not a reliable
great thing for me anymore. And I think if something
isn't working for you, then it's good to leave it. You know, I
think Facebook during the last election runs
when there was so much political stuff, we all knew it
was bad. We know Facebook just turned into a really big
political hot mess, and it started a lot of political
arguments. And there's a lot of, you know, negativity from both sides. And
that to me, like, we have to be online no matter what. If this is
your job and you're doing social media, you have to be online. And sometimes
it's even mental health, like, what is this not working for me?
You know, is Instagram making me feel bad because, you know,
the diet culture is just always there and it's making me feel bad,
and they have a really great life, and how come their house is bigger?
And, like, sometimes those things just get to you too much.
Even, sometimes seeing yourself too much if you're
recording yourself and taking photos of yourself, like, I think
before the pandemic, I did that a lot more, and then I was like, you
know what? I'm missing pieces of things because I'm recording it, and I really just
want to be, like, in this moment. So I took that back, and I still
do photos. I do photos sometimes now, but not all the time. Or
before I think I was doing it, like, literally all the time. Like, document
everything. Well well, do you know where that one came from? Gary
with Gary be. Don't create document. It's like, yes,
but not every minute. You know? Like, we also need to
have mental sanity. So Pinterest, as I already
mentioned, is a really it's it's a much more positive
environment. It's like a brain cleanse. You just go there. It's creative.
There's never negativity. There's really not even that much commenting
there. So I think sometimes if something isn't working
for you, it is fine to let it go. You don't always have to keep
everything like Twitter for you and lots of people just wasn't working any
anymore. So I think sometimes it is okay just to let things go
if it wasn't or if it just wasn't a platform that's right for you.
Like, TikTok, I do post videos over there, but I
I would not say I'm a TikToker. Like, you know, it's a whole different
vibe. It's a different community. It's just not my a 100%
jam. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Do you like TikTok?
So I do like TikTok. I watch more than I post.
And then when I do post, it does tend to be business related.
And I just love the algorithm over there. Like, I just find, like, for
my personal taste, I get like a nice eclectic mix of like content and I'm
like, this is fun. But from We both like books, and that's the best
play. I love BookTok. I do love BookTok. But I also like ins I like,
you know, I like bookstagrammers too. So Yeah. But Yeah.
Books are great on TikTok. I do love I do love that culture over
there. But it is like I said, it is okay. Sometimes we're all not gonna
fit on every platform. You know? Like Yes. If you're really we
don't have that much time to be the best at
5 different platforms because all the vibes are a little different. All the, you know,
the lengths are the captions are a little different. You know, there's little tweaks to
all of them. These have their own personality like we do. And
yeah. And this is one of the things I've noticed that has changed over the
years. Because, like, 10 years ago, you could post the same content
to all the platforms. I remember doing my little Hootsuite
scheduling tool, Square Graphic with my caption, and, like, I'd
maybe tweak Instagram to say link in bio, but it was the same it
was the same thing. And things have changed. And one of the things you mentioned
too is Gary v's, like, document everything, which, you know, he has, like, a
full team doing this behind him. Like, this is not a one
person thing. No. So when it comes to, like,
managing our mindset and our energy around approaching social
media, how do we how do we do that? How do we stay positive? How
do we stay inspired throughout this whole, like, CPR revitalizing
process? I think, you know, to to be able to maintain
consistency, I think you need to, like, block out some time so
you can batch process things and create things in a group. I think you can
still schedule some stuff, but it is hard to
be consistent if you're getting burnt out. Like, you know, that's one of the things
that can happen. So I think, you know, the mindset and
the energy, if you're really in your vibe, it's easy to
create content. And if you're getting burnt out, it gets harder and
harder as you go. So I like to batch process
things, so it makes it easier. It gives me more time for
the communication and the engagement pieces. Like, so if you
post something, then it gives you time to go there. It gives you time to,
like, customize. The energy piece of it for
me, sometimes, like, going back to the last one,
if the vibes are negative, I just it just will end up weighing
too much on me. The pandemic was, like, that was hard for social
media people. It was hard to, like, maintain
content. It was hard to create content. Everybody was home.
Everything just, like, went crazy. So I think the energy piece of it
is really important. Like, how can you maintain that for yourself? I think we have
to do our own thing for that and not just I think the cookie cutter
days are done of, like, everybody has to do x x x. I
think we can't compare ourselves to other people. We need to know
what our brand is and just create content that
works that we can mentally handle, like, that's not an
overload, that's not too much, that's, you know, not
too much exposure. And just I feel like it
kinda went crazy. You know what I mean? Like, just with the whole having
to be everywhere and do everything and document everything. And don't you
feel like we kind of exploded kind of the core what
why we were doing it? Yeah. And I think the pendulum is, like, swinging back
the other way where we went we went so far into, like, have the
aesthetic, record your whole life, and put it all on the Internet and be
vulnerable and transparent. And and now it's kinda swinging back to where,
like, we can have some stuff on the Internet, and that's fine. But
we also can live our lives and enjoy, like, real life things. Like you
said earlier, you know, taking photos and videos of everything, I used to be that
person too. And I just find if I just leave my phone
somewhere and, like, go, like, enjoy times with my kids or, like, go on
vacation, I feel better about it. And so now I'm at
the point where if I'm not in my office, I'm probably not recording
stuff. Like Right. At least not for the Internet, and I'm okay with that even
though this is my literal job. So much better for you mentally. Right?
Yeah. Like, I don't have to think, oh, I need to you know, like recording
b b roll, for example, just have a have a stash of it. You don't
have to every day be like, oh, I need to be camera ready, and I
need to, you know, make sure that this is this. And I think
that mentally is really hard long term. Like,
you just can't keep it up. And the people who used to do you know,
the YouTubers that were just like videos, videos, videos,
those people have burnt out. There's a lot of them that aren't even around anymore
because you just can't do it long term. You can't make
yourself just keep grinding, keep hustling, keep you know, 1,000,000
of dollars are not gonna magically show up on your door. It doesn't happen
even if you go viral. You know, the whole go viral and
your all your problems will be solved. They won't because
even if you gain a bunch of followers, they might not even be interested in
what you are talking about. They may just like that one video that
happened to be really good. So I think,
yeah, maintaining your mental health and energy is is
super important. What do you think is the most important for you, like, in
maintaining your energy throughout? Because you have you have kids
and that there's a lot that goes in that, you know, taking care of small
people in your house and I'm not sure. Pardon me. So
mentally exotic exhausting. I'm still figuring out. Like, my oldest is
only 2, so I feel like I've been doing this mom thing for a very
short amount of time. Yeah. And, so for me, it's figuring
out mom how to be a mom. How to be mom, how to still run
a business, how to do all the social media thing. And I think a lot
of it is making sure that I take time for myself
too because creating content is very mentally
exhausting. And the days where I skip are the days where
I don't actually, like, fill my own cup. So we talked about reading, for instance.
I'm a huge reader. I love reading. And I find that if I don't give
myself that, like, time for my brain to just relax and, like,
enjoy life for a sec, then everything feels so
heavy, you know. And and be working on the Internet, you know this, it just
we see a lot of terrible stuff. I know. The comment sections are
mean. We see like the worst of the Internet. So I need like my
escape. Yeah. My escape. And if I can escape for a little bit,
then usually that's enough for me to, like, maintain my energy while I'm
working and maintain my energy while I'm, like, on mom mode.
Right. And and also just creating stuff so you have a little bit of
backlog of stuff just in case you do need a day off or take a
day off. And, also, if you do have to take a day off, don't beat
yourself up about it. I mean, we like to be consistent, but
if you need a mental health day or you need to just be offline, like,
I used to work a lot at night. I'd work all day, then I work
more at night, and then I would work on the on the weekends, you know.
I I had a blog post that would go out every Monday for probably a
good 12 years, you know, and I was working on those always on the
weekend and then doing all the social and, you know, it's it's hard.
They could it's important to be consistent, but also at some point, you can just
say, you know, now I have such a good backlog. I can just kind of,
like, redo things and reuse them and repurposing
things in a smart way, like creating a bigger video and then making little
things from that gives you content to trickle out so you don't need
to just re you don't have to recreate the wheel anymore, I
feel like. Yeah. And I think that's it. It's like finding
ways to keep your message the same, keep your
main points the same, and then just tweak it a little bit. And then
content creation does become easier the more that you do it. You know, like, I've
been creating content for 20 years at this point. So it's like, for me, it's
a lot easier than 20 years ago. Yeah. And so I feel
like there's this psych ease that comes with it over time. There is. But
also you gotta keep it fresh. So there's that aspect of it too, you know,
and things change a little bit and tweak a little bit. And I've been doing
I mean, I've been it feels like I've been creating content forever writing, doing
whatever. And and you do have to really make sure that you do mentally, like
you said, refresh and give yourself time off so you
can come up with new ideas and be fresh with things.
Yeah. Exactly. A bigger piece of now. I try I
do, you know, work in a lot of self care stuff just so I
can, you know, keep going. Yeah. Yeah.
Self care is important. Yeah. It really is. It really is.
Okay. Last question is about, like, metrics. How do we
know that once we've done our CPR on our accounts, how do we know that
it's all working? So the biggest, indicator
these days is really engagement. So follower count, you know, we
always focus on how many followers we have. It doesn't matter as much
as how many people are engaged for their content. So it's really a
matter of, like, trying to get in there and, you know, ask questions,
give things, you know, hot takes, not like a negative hot take, but
something that's, like, your opinion on a thing with your
spin on it, with your brand overlay. You know, those kind of things
are important. I think, you know, the engagement metric is the
biggest piece, especially if Instagram is your big thing. You know,
they come out every once in a while, and they tell us these are the
things that are working, and the sharing of posts
is really the highest indicator. It probably always was.
Likes, comments, and shares. So they really look at
how many people are saving and sharing things. So think about creating
content that, really resonates
with people enough to share it, not just for them to, you know,
hit the like button and say, yeah. I like that. So you're really working at
creating something that people would feel like they do wanna share to
someone else. So you wanna make sure it's really educational
or valuable or funny. Maybe, you know, marketing, maybe we're not
as always funny as as other things, but we definitely want to be helpful
and entertaining. So share something that you create that's really valuable,
so people do want to share it and look at those engagement
metrics more than the follower count, and to just check
your analytics, you know, and just see, like, are you doing stuff? Is it really
not working? You know, you can see when something picks up, like and then
really grab that piece and say, why is this working
and make more of that. I mean, I think the thing is figure we
all get a piece that goes really far, then you really gotta break that down.
And if you have some you know, if you're not really getting anything that's
doing really well, kind of look around in the community and look
at what kind of posts are other people making. Like, are they making
carousels? Are they making, you know, just videos?
Carousels are doing great. You just have to do a longer carousel. They
they can't be super short. You know, they're trying to convince us that adding
music on every carousel is a good idea. I really don't think that's a good
idea, so I'm not gonna try it even though they want us to,
because I think that's too much of a disconnect for me. You know, they
they try to come up with stuff and they're like, hey, you should do this,
but do we really need a different song with every image? This was
like the music on the profile for me. I'm like, hello, are we Myspace now?
Like, what is happening? We don't need music on our profiles.
No. Just give us better ways to track our comments and
respond to people. Even, you know, even when you're really careful and you go
try to hit every comment, because I'm posting, like, a bunch of different places.
I check all the time. I went on LinkedIn and I found, like, 3 different
posts that had comments that didn't even show in my notifications. And I was
like, wow. I hate you now. Thanks. Yeah. Like, there's people that I
didn't respond to because I did literally did not see the comment.
Yeah. Yeah. We're also making it harder even on Instagram. Like, you don't
see all the comments. You really have to click on a couple things to see
your own comments on your own posts. Yeah. They're making it
harder. Bring back, like, regular notifications and set
LinkedIn's the worst for this. All the notifications, like, aren't comment
related. It's like this other person posted. I'm like, I don't need that
one. Like Tell me this one would come into that one. I post from yesterday.
The comments. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Peg, you have a new book coming
out. Tell us about the new book. When is it coming out? What is it
all about? Thank you. So it's coming out November
19th, so it's pretty close. It's in preorder now and it
is for small business owners who struggle with their social media or
if you just need to revamp everything. It's really
beginning to end, like how to figure out what your brand is, how to figure
out who your clients, your target audience is, how to build your
goals out, and then how to reach those goals, how to create content, where you
should be depending on who your audience is, and just really from
the beginning to the end for small business owners to create their
own content and create a brand that will bring sales for
them. Yes. Awesome. So you can check that book out. I'll put the link
in the show notes onlandre.com/ 330 along with
all the links to connect with Peg on social media. Thank you so
much for being on the podcast today. Thank you for having me. This was
so fun. I love your show. Truly fangirl moment for me. Thank you.
Thank you. And thank you, dear listener, for tuning in to another episode of the
Mindful Marketing podcast. Stay tuned because next week, I am interviewing Christina Barthold, who is
actually the connection for this podcast. Yeah. I'm excited to talk to her
about
events and all the things that she does over there. Also, if you are in
my community, we have a content collab coming up where we can brainstorm
all the content ideas. So if this episode was really a spark for
you, come on in into our collaboration session, and we can brainstorm even further
on content ideas for your business. But that's been our episode
today. I will see you next Tuesday. Bye.