The Marketing Unleashed Podcast – Which businesses should be using social media and which should not?

Joel: Welcome and thank you for downloading and listening to another episode of the marketing unleash podcast. So today we’re discussing what type of businesses need social media and which don’t. And joining me are Jamie, Jill, and Rachel. So which businesses need social media?

Jamie: I think all of them do.

Joel: But do they?

Jamie: I think so.

Joel: Okay. If you’re gonna reach your audience and engage with them, why wouldn’t you take advantage of that?

Joel: But what if your audience is above the age of 60 and they’re likely not on social media?

Jamie: I think you’d still need to take advantage.

Jill: There’s not a negative side about putting yourself out there more.

Jamie: It’s free.

Jill: Right? You’re getting your name out there. You are engaging with your customers. But the thing is, you have to be willing to keep it up, post often, not make yourself look like a slacker by posting once every three years. You have to keep up with it.

Joel: Well, so that brings me back to my point. Is it really free if your a solopreneur or you have a very small team and you don’t have the time or the energy to come up with content, how do you post? You have to pay somebody? Right?

Jamie: Yeah.

Jill: If you’re talking about yourself and your business, you know it pretty well. You can, quickly throw something out there about yourself every couple of days or so. If you want to get more into it-

Jamie: If you’re serious about it, you really need to take the time to take advantage of social media.

Jill: Right. It only takes a few minutes to write a quick post. Here’s what’s going on. Here’s some products we have on sale right now. Here’s our business hours. Here’s an event. Anything could be a post. It’s just a matter of keeping it regular and remembering to do it. Yeah.

Joel: Rachel, any thoughts here?

Rachel: Well, you might think that no one’s going to see it or even really care, but I feel like it’s still can’t hurt just to get yourself out there on social media.

Jill: It doesn’t hurt with a CO. Can’t forget about that.

Joel: Right. Oh yeah.

Rachel: It still gets you out there.

Jamie: Oh yeah, because it’s more real estate.

Rachel: Even if the people you want to see it aren’t even seeing it.

Joel: Right. Okay. So now what types of social media would you say? So let’s say you have a restaurant, or you’re an insurance agent, or just any type of business. It could be a product business, consumer packaged good. What social media channels would you go after?

Jamie: Well and speaking of restaurants, the power of the review. That is huge. Because what is the one thing that everybody does first and foremost when they’re researching anything? They look at reviews.

Jill: Right.

Jamie: Especially with restaurants.

Jill: If you’re going out, you don’t go out much. You say I want to eat somewhere really good. I want to eat some delicious food with good service, and a nice location.

Jamie: And it’s not just restaurants.

Jill: And I want to research it before I go because I don’t want to waste my time and money.

Jamie: Yeah. You’re going to look at reviews.

Joel: Okay. So if you’re a restaurant would you … obviously Yelp. That would be one place. Because Yelp is considered a social media platform.

Jill: I think you’d consider Instagram. For sure.

Jamie: TripAdvisor. Restaurants are on TripAdvisor too.

Joel: But would a restaurant benefit for being on Twitter?

Jamie: Yeah. Oh definitely.

Rachel: They could put out their daily specials or something.

Jill: Hours, things like that. I think Instagram is really great for food pictures.

Jamie: Coupons. Specials.

Jill: People like looking at food.

Jamie: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Especially in this generation. [crosstalk 00:03:27]

Jill: A restaurant could do-

Jamie: … They’re looking at hashtag food porn. That’s what they’re looking at.

Jill: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve chosen something to eat because I saw a picture of it on Instagram and I was like I need to eat that right now.

Joel: Oh yeah definitely.

Jamie: Because you’re connecting with that customer on an emotional level. I mean it’s all about that visual, for Instagram. They see that food, or they see that nice looking hotel room, and you send them a special.

Jill: But then again, if you look at their restaurant’s Facebook, you see they haven’t posted since 2013, you’re kind of like, “What’s up with this place? I don’t know if I want eat there. That’s kind of weird.” So you got to stick with it.

Jamie: Well with restaurants, that’s a lot of times where they should be engaging with their customers. That’s a lot of times where people will post a complaint.

Jill: Their comments. Right.

Jamie: Their comments. And that’s where people are going to look. What do people think about this restaurant?

Jill: I’ve definitely written Yelp reviews and had somebody write back, “I’m sorry you had a bad experience.”

Jamie: And when they do that how do you feel?

Jill: And I would try it again because they took the time-

Jamie: Exactly.

Jill: … To acknowledge that I wrote to them. But you know, on the other hand I’ve had a lot ignore what I have to say. And I’m like, “Well I’m done with them.”

Jamie: Well, when I bought my car recently I went to their Facebook page and wrote a really nice review about them, and said they took really good care of me, and the guy was really nice and they took the time to write back.

Jamie: Thank you. You guys were great. And they had really nice reviews.

Joel: Okay.

Jill: I guess we’re talking about more as social media via review. And Joel’s talking more about, traditional Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Jamie: Well, I’m just saying-

Joel: Just everything in general.

Jamie: I’m just saying that is where they need to be engaging with their customers.

Jill: Right.

Jamie: And that is what a business should be utilizing social media. That’s one way a business should be using social media for.

Joel: Well, I think you just hit the nail on the head right there. It’s where are your customers? Where’s your target audience? If they’re not on Facebook, don’t worry about being on Facebook. If they’re not on Twitter, don’t worry about Twitter.

Jamie: Well I think if they’re on Facebook, they’re on Twitter, they’re on Instagram. I mean if you’re using one, you’re probably using multiples.

Joel: Well how many do you use?

Jamie: All of them.

Joel: You use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, everything.

Jamie: Snapchat.

Jill: So are you asking how to find what your customers are using? And how you find that?

Joel: Well I would say that’s one thing you need to do is figure out where your customers are at. That’s advertising 101. Whenever you want to get the word out on anything, you want to know where your customers are at and so you can target that area or that medium. The way I look at it is, you have to ask yourself the three questions.

Jamie: And 60 year olds are on Facebook.

Joel: I know, I know.

Jamie: They are.

Joel: Yeah. I know. I know.

Jamie: My grandma’s on Facebook.

Joel: Yeah.

Jamie: I don’t think she uses it very often, but she’s there.

Jill: She’s out there.

Joel: Would your grandma be influenced by anything on Facebook though?

Jamie: I don’t know. Probably.

Joel: I guess the better question is would anybody’s grandma be influenced by Facebook?

Jamie: Yes. I’m going to say yes.

Joel: Yeah. Okay. All right. Well you’re probably more right that our grandparents would be more influenced on things on social media than we would, because we kind of have an eye for bullshit in a way.

Rachel: I could see an older person just clicking on any article and believing it.

Jamie: Yes.

Joel: Yeah. Yeah. We definitely have BS meters. Our BS meters are on high alert compared to … and we’re all in our mid thirties just to give everybody an idea. Yeah. But our meters are definitely higher than most people over the age of 50, who didn’t grow up on the internet.

Jamie: Yeah. Because they’re the ones being duped by the robo calls and all of that.

Joel: The Nigerian princes and everything.

Jamie: Right.

Joel: All right. So we’ve established that it doesn’t hurt for a business to be on social media, assuming that they know that their audiences is there, that they have something to say and they have the time and patience or they have somebody else who can do it for them. Whether if it’s an employee or a paid agency like ourselves.

Joel: Now why should businesses have social media accounts? What are the … obviously being there is one benefit, but give us some other examples of why they should be there.

Rachel: Well if they’re coming out with new products and services pretty often. How is anyone going to know unless you don’t put it out there on social media?

Jill: It’s honestly easier to keep up with something that’s changing frequently on your social media than actually updating your website over and over. Unless it’s a retailer, probably. But if you have something quick to say, you announce it on Facebook. If you have an upcoming event.

Jamie: Yeah, it’s less expensive.

Jill: Right. And it’s just easy to get the word out.

Jamie: They’re doing a full blown advertising or marketing campaign it’s a lot easier to reach on a global scale. If it goes viral, boom.

Joel: Right. Okay. And so we talked about Yelp earlier and some other review sites like Angie’s List. It could even be LinkedIn. Facebook has reviews and stuff. What about reputation management? How would you use it for reputation management?

Jamie: Well, yeah, like we said, if you get a bad review, you could attack that right away, or manage it.

Jill: And by attack, she means respond.

Jamie: Yes.

Joel: Respond kindly.

Jill: Not attack the person.

Jamie: Yes, respond kindly.

Jill: Yes. You can really help uphold your image just by kindly responding to people that are not so kind to you. And people read that. I think-

Jamie: “Oh, I’m so sorry you had a bad experience.”

Jill: Right.

Jamie: Not, “mm”

Jill: I think ignoring comments, especially negative ones are pretty much the worst thing you can do.

Jamie: Yeah.

Rachel: I’ve even seen some where they respond back negatively, so I think that’s pretty much just [crosstalk 00:09:35] you never want to go that place.

Jill: Rise above.

Joel: Yeah. It makes you look petty.

Rachel: Yeah.

Joel: It’s not good.

Jill: Take the high road.

Joel: So how about authority building? Do you feel that if a brand is on social media and they’re killing it, do you see them as superior to their competition?

Jill: Yeah. Especially if they’re writing articles, maybe that you’d find on LinkedIn that would be more B to B businesses, I would say. But, if a brand is just destroying their competition with their number of followers and how many posts they do a day, and how much time and effort they put into it. It seems like they’re superior.

Joel: Jamie?

Jamie: I’m trying to think of a brand that is doing that really well.

Rachel: That’s just out there everywhere you look.

Jamie: Yeah. On Instagram, I see a ton of … it’s all fashion-y stuff.

Rachel: I feel like those meal kit services are like-

Jamie: yeah, I see a lot of that.

Rachel: … everywhere.

Jill: I guess a lot of it has to do with ads.

Joel: Right. Yeah. Can you name a meal service?

Rachel: Hello Fresh.

Joel: Okay.

Rachel: Is the first one that comes to mind.

Joel: And do they advertise a lot?

Rachel: I feel like I see it everywhere. I’ve never done it before.

Joel: Right.

Jill: And then sometimes you forget, am I actually following this? Because it comes up so much.

Jamie: No because it’s sponsored.

Joel: Right.

Jill: Yeah. But then I’m like, “Wait a minute, I didn’t ever liked this. But it’s still showing.”

Joel: Yeah, I think that’s what gets confusing. Because if you follow something, years later you kind of forget that you followed it, but you’re constantly seeing their posts. But I think that they also target you even if you follow them. So you’re getting their sponsored content and you’re getting their organic content.

Jill: Right.

Joel: I don’t know. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed whenever I see all these ads on social media. It’s like “Okay, back off.” You know?

Rachel: Right.

Jamie: Yeah. Because I was getting one from a weird supplement or vitamin, and it was just every single time I’d got on Instagram and finally I had to flag it or something. I’m sick of seeing this.

Jill: You can get rid of stuff. I guess while we were doing a little preparation for this talk today, we’ve known this before, but it always comes up that a really big retailer that does zero social media and is still okay, is Trader Joe’s.

Joel: Really?

Jill: They do have nothing.

Jamie: They have nothing.

Jill: Except they have fan accounts on Instagram, which I do follow, of what’s new products and recipes and that kind of thing. But they’re not run by Trader Joe’s.

Jamie: That surprises me. That Trader Joe’s does no social media.

Joel: Does Aldi because Trader Joe’s and Aldi are owned by the-

Rachel: Aldis does. I checked and they have all of it.

Jill: Trader Joe’s might have an Instagram now. But I know-

Rachel: I just went on their website. I didn’t see any links. But there’s all the unofficial stuff.

Jill: Yeah.

Joel: But Trader Joe’s is kind of like that cult brand, you know?

Jamie: It is.

Jill: So they rely mainly on word of mouth. They have radio ads. You might’ve heard them. Kind of an old school. They sent out a newsletter in the mail, the actual mail.

Rachel: I do look at it.

Jill: I would say they’re doing okay without social media. And the reason, there was some long explanation about why they don’t, I guess privacy. I don’t know. They just don’t want to do it.

Joel: Well, I don’t blame them.

Rachel: They don’t want to get, I guess all the backlash that maybe could come with it.

Jamie: Does Whole Foods do social media?

Rachel: Yeah, I checked. They do. I think they used to not and now they do.

Jill: So I guess it is possible in 2019 to have no social media and be okay.

Jamie: And still be okay.

Jill: But it’s personal preference.

Jamie: Do they do product placement? Because I feel like I’ve seen Trader Joe’s stuff in TV.

Jill: I think they have so many bloggers using their products.

Jamie: So that’s something.

Jill: I don’t even know if they pay for influencers to sponsor content. I think people just do it because they like it. And I think trader Joe’s is really getting a lot of free advertising just because people like their stuff.

Joel: Yeah, well-

Jill: That’s not common for most places though.

Joel: Right. If you can get people to go buy a product, and then tell other people on social media that you love the product, which I actually do see that on Trader Joe’s. Not on Trader Joe’s, but people talk about Trader Joe’s.

Jill: I’ve done that myself.

Jamie: Oh yeah. Just because they have so many Trader Joe’s specific meals, that you can’t get anywhere else.

Jill: I had a great experience at Trader Joe’s last year and I posted something about it on Facebook and a lot of people said-

Jamie: Oh yeah, like the people that they hire.

Jill: Yeah.

Jamie: And those cashiers, they try … which I thought was kind of weird, the first time I went in there. They tried to talk to you.

Jill: They’re very friendly.

Joel: What do you mean?

Rachel: They are like, “Oh have you tried this chips before? They’re really good.” Or-

Jamie: They actively engage in conversation with you. Which really threw me off.

Joel: So they almost turn into product ambassadors.

Rachel: Which makes me wonder if they’ve actually tried these chips that I’m buying.

Joel: I think I’ve seen an article where Trader Joe’s, they actually do training. They actually make well … I guess they can’t make them, but they suggest that you try everything. And they actually give away free product to their employees, I think.

Rachel: Right.

Jamie: That’s a great idea.

Joel: Yeah. So that encourages it. I mean obviously if you have an allergy or something,

Jamie: But so like Jill was saying, they’re utilizing bloggers, which I mean that’s utilizing social media.

Joel: I consider that social media.

Jamie: Yeah.

Jill: But we don’t know if they’re getting paid.

Rachel: We don’t know if they’re being sponsored.

Jill: They could just be people that are like, “This is the best, the cauliflower gnocchi.”

Jamie: I mean the blogger will say at the bottom, I have been paid.

Jill: Yeah. And I don’t usually see that.

Joel: Usually.

Rachel: I think Trader Joe’s relies on word of mouth and they do a good job of that because people like finding a really awesome product and then telling everybody about it. Because everyone wants to be the first to like something.

Jamie: Yeah. You’ve been on a million food blogs that utilize a specific ingredient or brand of butter or something.

Jill: The Everything But the Bagel seasoning.

Rachel: Well there’s so many blogs that have their top 10 favorite items at Trader Joe’s. And it’s just all over Pinterest. [crosstalk 00:15:46] And it’s just blown up all on its own.

Jamie: Huh? That’s interesting.

Jill: They’re an anomaly.

Joel: So, all right, so how much information is too much and whenever you’re posting on social media, what should you post? What shouldn’t you post? And I know that can be a whole nother segment, so we don’t have to get too deep into it. But I guess really what I’m trying to get to is authenticity. Social media allows businesses to show the faces behind the business or the brand. So what are some of the best ways of showing that authenticity without getting too much into the weeds?

Jill: I think you don’t actually want to talk about yourself every single time you post, because then people just see that as an ad. We’re here to just talk, talk, talk about us. And I think people are actually looking to see if you’re posting interesting articles that have to do with your industry.

Jamie: I think it depends on the business too. Because if you’re talking about a big corporate business, if it’s Adidas or something like that, they’re not going to be posting stuff about the people behind the brand, I wouldn’t think.

Joel: But why not?

Jamie: They’re probably more focused on the consumer.

Joel: But doesn’t that add a another dimension to the product and their brand?

Jamie: That would.

Jill: If you look at GE’s, they have a lot of followers. And they post … well they have a bunch of different divisions, but they post about themselves pretty frequently. But then they also post about their employees a lot, and their customers. They kind of go all across the board, but they have a lot to say, I guess.

Rachel: They have a lot of variety.

Jamie: Right. So I guess it just depends on the brand-

Joel: Right. See I think car manufacturers-

Jamie: … And the story that you’re trying to tell.

Joel: Right. That’s true. I think car manufacturers do a good job at talking about the people. Because with car manufacturers, it’s like, okay, what’s really the difference between a Ford, or Chevy, or a Toyota, or anything else. It gets you from A to B, it has certain features. What I think makes different car companies is the people. The story that they tell.

Jamie: The people that are making the cars.

Joel: Right. And people buy their cars based on that decision alone. So I think car companies definitely do a good job at telling the authenticity story. I don’t know if they necessarily do it on social media as much, because I don’t follow any of them. And I don’t know if they advertise a lot on social media or not. I haven’t been caught in their algorithms.

Rachel: Now you will be. They are listening.

Joel: Yeah. Right yeah. We’ll know how good all that … Retargeting. Sorry. I couldn’t come up with the word retargeting. Yeah. Alright. So what about recruiting, recruiting employees? Not customers. Do you think your social media has anything to do with your company culture?

Jamie: Oh yeah.

Joel: Does it properly reflect your company culture?

Jamie: Yeah. it should.

Joel: Well, it should, yes. But do you feel like it does though? Whenever you look at different brands?

Jamie: I guess it depends.

Joel: Okay. So let’s just say that you go to-

Jamie: Which one are you talking about?

Joel: I don’t necessarily want to name any out there. I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus. But let’s just say-

Jamie: Yeah. Give us an example.

Joel: Let’s just say there’s a big box store, or a big retail store out there, and they’re all lovey dovey in their commercials and their social media. But we know that it’s well documented that they don’t treat their employees very well. They don’t pay very well.

Jamie: Like Walmart?

Joel: Okay.

Jill: Not name any specific names.

Joel: Okay. Sure, if we could throw that out there.

Jamie: That is well documented. Sorry.

Joel: Yeah. But-

Jamie: Everybody knows that.

Joel: But how do you think that that really comes off? Is that authentic? Does it help recruit employees? Or does everybody pretty much know that it’s just, you’re going to get what you’re going to get there.

Rachel: I guess probably people, if you need a job, you’re just going to go there.

Joel: Okay. All right.

Jill: Talking to other employees is probably where you’ll find the most info.

Jamie: Yeah because they’re … on Facebook or anywhere, they’re going to try-

Jill: They can still always delete.

Rachel: To put their best face forward.

Jamie: Exactly.

Rachel: And it’s not gonna show the real truth of what it’s like to work there.

Jamie: If I was looking for a job, yeah I’m going to go to the Facebook because that is the community type of face.

Jill: You get the feeling of what kind of company this is. For example, our Facebook people probably catch what kind of vibe we are here.

Jamie: Yeah, the vibe.

Jill: Right.

Jamie: What kind of vibe is this company?

Jill: We don’t talk specifically about what it is like to work here and what the people are like. But from what we say and what we show, we give a feeling of how it is to work here. But I think maybe in a big place such as Walmart, if you really want to know, you just ask other people that work there.

Joel: Well that’s true. Yeah. Alright, well that’s all I had. Anybody have any other thoughts or want to bring anything else up?

Jill: Maybe just a little recap of what we’ve been talking about. Deciding if you need social media. Finding, if your target audience is out there.

Joel: Yes.

Jill: Which is doing your research, seeing what your competition is doing. Realizing if you have something to say, which we think everyone has something to say.

Jamie: And you’ve got an offering. I mean your business.

Jill: Right. And it just really doesn’t hurt you to put yourself out there more, as long as you keep up with it. And then that was the third point which was do you have the time and the patience to keep up with it?

Joel: Yeah. Because it does take a lot of time and patience to build that social media up. Not just your content but the followers. It isn’t, “If you build it they will come.” type of thing. You have to … that’s a whole other subject on how to grow your social media.

Jill: I would say start small. You don’t want to try every channel out there that’s overwhelming, you know, just pick two, three social media channels and start from there. See how it goes.

Rachel: Find the right balance. You don’t want to be too over the top and annoying, but you don’t want to be just casually out there once a month posting

Joel: like eh, I feel like posting today or eh, I don’t.

Rachel: Yeah, because then it seems kind of weird. Like “What would made them post for the first time in seven months?”

Joel: Right.

Rachel: “I wonder why.”

Joel: Yeah, yeah. Maybe their phone got turned off or who knows. They broke their phone or computer. All right. Well anything else?

Jill: And it’s never too late to start even though it’s 2019 and Facebook’s been there since 2004. It’s all right.

Joel: But it’s okay because Instagram’s only been around for four, five years.

Jamie: And look how that’s evolved.

Rachel: Hm, kind of longer than that.

Joel: Right. And longer you think?

Jill: I think it’s 2010 or 11.

Joel: Okay.

Rachel: It was just like a photo editing thing before.

Joel: Oh yeah. It was the filters.

Jamie: All the filters and the frames and stuff.

Joel: Yeah.

Jill: Now look what it is. Who knew?

Joel: Right. Now I think … no, there’s not more users than Facebook, but it’s growing way faster than Facebook.

Jill: Yeah. But it’s not too late to start. Don’t be ashamed.

Joel: That’s right. It’s never too late.

Jill: Right.

Joel: All right, well, I think we’ll wrap this discussion up and we’ll be right back with, can’t let it go for this week.