Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Make sure that you don't overthink it. So keep it simple, keep it straight to the point, and keep yourself accountable because you won't want to create a strategy, create a marketing calendar, and not do it. So that's kind of the simplicity of that, of how I like to tell people to start is just like getting three or four pillars. Know who you're talking to, know their pain points, know how they like to be spoken to, but also keep yourself in mind.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Welcome to the society Gal podcast, where trailblazing female entrepreneurs and creatives come together to spark change and build their dreams. This is where your passion meets purpose. And together we're crafting a future where everyone has the tools to succeed.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Welcome to the society Gal podcast. And we have a special guest with us today, Arielle Jackson. She's going to talk all about strengthening your social media marketing strategy. And we're first just going to jump in on how you got to this place of helping people with us. How have you got to this place of business expertise that you have that we're so excited to hear from today? So let's start with that.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah. So I'm Ariel. I got to this place from a kind of crazy journey. So I used to work in the healthcare field. I started off being the intake rep at the emergency room during COVID in 2020. Then I moved to a clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. They were doing some things that I did not want to be involved in, and I saw a TikTok about being a virtual assistant. So I kind of took that up with myself and I created contracts. I got three clients within the first few months, which was kind of wild, but it was all just, I just told people this is what I'm doing now, and they jump on board. I mean, I was new, so I didn't vet them as well as I probably should have. But, you know, I learned from that and I know that now. But one of those clients was my cousin when I was doing social media marketing for her photography business. And that was actually very funny because it's something I did not want to do. Social media, it's always a battle with me mentally, just all the fakeness and all the this and that. And it's. I just didn't want anything to do with it. But I started doing it for her and I fell in love with it. Then I started taking courses, and then I started switching most of my clients, just virtual media. Then I started just falling more in love with the strategy and the creativity of that because I used both sides of my brain with that. And I also can use social media to tell a story, to get people to know how to be more authentic, to know how to be more real to themselves, and just to be able to have fun with it. So that's kind of how I got to the social media marketing strategist. Like, a long journey of like, healthcare to social media. I just kept building my client base and kept knowing what specifically in social media that I like to do and how to use my talents to serve people best in that field.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: I love that. And I love how the thing that you didn't want to do pivoted you on the path to where you should have been.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: That's really great. And I love how open you were to, to lean into that and figure that out. I love that. Awesome. So let's talk about. I always love to highlight people that you've helped personally, like, specific stories. I think it really helps all the listeners really understand, you know, how they can be helped and how they can help themselves get to one point to another. So let's talk about, like a story of your, of a client that we discussed before of like, the quality of relevant social media and marketing strategy. Like, what's really like, we know a lot of us focus on quantity, I feel like, and when we're talking about marketing strategy, social media marketing strategy, which you're going to deep dive into is the quality like that is that is really what the focus is on. So can you share that client story about how you help them really build that quality and strengthen their strategy that way?
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's a specific client that I just want to share about, and they are in a community based client out here in Dallas, Texas. And they're beautiful, beautiful community of women, and they just really try to bring women together. And so we, whenever I was on board with, I release just a social media, according to social media marketing manager, and I'm building up their strategy as a whole for email and Instagram. I have really seen a shift in the way our community communicates, engages, and the way the community is growing with a strategy, but a strategy that's not complicated. So we also implement things that are just super easy to make it less complicated because social media does not have to be complicated. We use many chats with that, too. And that has helped us sell out events. That's helped us sell a ton of events and ton of tickets that we didn't. So we, I guess just really implementing that simple social media strategy. And I want to preference, like, simple, simple simple, because it's. We've got a calendar, we've got what our KPR's are and how we're going to reach that without all the fluff. I feel like a lot of people on a lot of social media strategists like to put a lot of fluff in their stuff and say, this is my technique. This is how I'm going to put you in this box, and we're going to succeed. Because this is my technique, you know, just to try to stand out. I hated it. Did not work for me. I'm just me. I will show up and I will lead you, and I will guide you, and I'll serve you with a simple social media strategy that fits for you and your business. It doesn't have to be an ABC or, you know, some acronym, something that I implement to your business. And so me showing up and doing that for that client has made a huge impact in just relieving stress off the owner, relieving stress off the team, and then knowing, okay, Ariel's got the social media strategy. We can see it because they can also follow along with my journey of creating that, too, because I keep them involved and they know what's going out, when it's going out, and I have everything. Coordinator. Beautiful. Let's get to it.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: And I love how we talked about this before on our podcast, prep the research that goes into it, because you just said, you know, it's not a cookie cutter strategy, which we hear a lot from, like, gurus and things on social media. That's just like, this is the strategy that's going to get you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So what does it take, especially with this specific client that you're talking about, our specific example, you know, what did it take to understand what that strategy would be?
[00:06:10] Speaker A: For me, it took knowing what she wanted and what her goals were, because I don't ever create a strategy without goals because I don't know what I'm eating. And so once she told me, like, okay, this is what we're trying to. We're trying to sell this, this, or trying to build this community or, you know, get, however people do whatever, then I know, okay, now I know what I'm working towards now. I know how I can best serve you and how I can build a strategy that serves your business, her business, even her personal brand, and just her brand as a whole, the community as a whole. So for me, it's just knowing those goals, and then I can create content pillars from those goals to know what we're going to market, how we're going to market and all that, and then we create a calendar and a strategy and all.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Working backwards from the goal, I'm sure you find that a lot of people kind of work the other way around where they're going to put stuff out there. I just need a lead. I just need this. But the impact you're able to make with getting dozens and dozens to even hundreds of people to events just because you understood the goals and create a strategy to back it up is pretty awesome and pretty great. And you talked about it before, which is just simplicity. Like, you're not doing like, let's go on every single platform possible to make this happen and just like post and post. Like, I mean, you have, you talked about many chat, you talked about, you know, there's a whole sales strategy as well, which I know you don't do that part, but I mean, it kind of goes into that piece and how that all works together. But I love how you made it so custom to them. I think that's something everyone can learn today, is, is to make something customized to you and really understand what that is because I remember you're speaking earlier, I'm just like, a lot of us hate social media. Like, a lot of us do not want to be on there and it's like your energy is just sucked out of you on social media. So to create a strategy that works in a way that, you know, numbers, you know, this is what the results going to be. I mean, that's really reassuring. Yeah. So something we talked about before, which kind of really kind of related to this because this sounds like a really big project you're a part of. What shift did you make to go from a lot of clients with lower quality to less clients and higher quality work?
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's actually a shift that I just made recently and I'm still making it. I think I might just only do referral based at this point. So I realize, and I'm not sure if that's because living in America, things are expensive and people just don't want to spend the money. It's very easy to be abused in this area, meaning it's very easy for people to give you the least amount of money possible for the most amount of things that you can get. So like $500 for 50 post a month? That's, that's exaggeration, but it's very common right now and I honestly can't stand it. There's no joy in that type of work. There's no joy because they don't value you. And I want to work with people that want to value me because that'll make me feel better at doing my job. I'm able to do my job well because I won't be stressed out about the deliverables and the least amount of money that I'm getting. I noticed that the least amount of money people pay, the more complicated they are to work with. So I really am making that shift, honestly for my mental health, for the health of my business.
[00:09:22] Speaker C: And yeah, I think it's so, so common. And I love how you said, yeah, there's no joy in that work. And when you talk about, you know, the really big project you were working on with that client, I mean, that sounds like so fun and like you're so passionate. You really light up when you talk about that. Just to be involved so deeply in someone's business in that way and to see the results so greatly, then just here's a post that will probably get you nowhere that I'm going to make for you compared to, let's see, okay, three months from now, six months from now, where we're going to be. I think that's pretty cool to see that growth. I mean, that's very fulfilling. Always reminder to people listening. It's like there's always people out there that need that type of service. Always. There's never not people that are not going to pay you, you know, a certain amount of money to a premium price to do that service. So let's talk about social media strategy and what that looks like. I think a lot of people get that confused with social media management. I feel like when you were talking, those are two very different things. So can you explain, like, why you do social media strategy over managing and what those two are and the differences?
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So I like to explain it management. Social media management is your managing account. So you're keeping up with whatever likes and comments and engagement. You're just keeping up with posts and you're keeping the account. Strategy is you're building out something that's going to get you to a specific goal. So a lot of times there are two different positions with marketing strategy versus social media management. A lot of times a marketing manager or marketing strategist is the person that does the strategy. Okay, here are our goals. Here's how we're going to meet that goal. Here's what you're going to post when you're going to post all that jazz, and then the social media manager is the one that implements that so it's kind of that hard to top down type of deal. I really like social media strategy because I love to see the goal and I love to see how we're going to get there. And I want to implement that. I want to be able to lead from that more high view of things instead of just doing things just to maintain and just doing all the little nitty gritty things. I want to be able to build a strategy that sites that client that excites me and that gets them to that.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Yeah. And so it's more of that vision piece, that brain work piece, rather than just the do piece or the implementation of something. And like you said before, just like the impact it makes on the client. And so when did you discover kind of your skill in strategy?
[00:11:43] Speaker A: I think it was about my second client. I was just kind of posting, creating posts just to create them and keep maintaining the feed. And she came to me and was like, well, I don't feel like this is working. And I told her, well, we don't really know who we're targeting. We don't know what we're doing. We're just kind of out here just swinging it, throwing out some posts. So whenever she came to me with that, that's when I started doing courses and I got some certifications and that's when they started talking about strategy and content calendars, all of this cool stuff. I was like, oh, I love this. And I'm also very organized, very like planning and leadership, visionary type person. But I am very creative. So I, that was where I really made the decision, like, okay, I'm already going to do some of social media marketing. If I can be able to create a strategy and goals. If they know who their target audience is and if they want more than just maintaining, they want to bring in clients. They want to just bring awareness to their personal brand or brand or, you know, whatever their goals.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Yeah, like intentional growth. And it really reminds me of kind of web designers, I mean, probably anybody, but I always think of web designers like, yeah, someone can design your website or someone can be a web designer that is also a brand strategist that sits there and on a two hour call and goes through your brand voice and your messaging and everything, and then build a website and then give that to a copywriter and put that together and put that beautiful thing together and the colors and what they mean. And I've been through that process, but there is such a stark difference between those two things. While a website design I could buy off of online, I probably bought five or six of those during my business while, you know, I paid a lot more for the brand designer and web designer. But that's like the website I'm going to have forever because it just is the exact thing that met the goals and speaks to the business and everything. So I think it's the same thing as strategy. And I've had experience hiring social media managers, and it's just like, it's not working. And that's a big reason why it's a two way street, for sure. But if someone can lead, like, I mean, anybody who is in the social media world or managing someone's social media, I love how Ariel is, is really just like leading her clients like you lead your clients. I think it's a really big difference is you're leading your clients comparing to just taking direction. Like, I'm just going to do this, but you're leading with your expertise because you have that and you're able to do that, which just is so creatively great. I'm, I'm sure.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: And I also know that people hire you to be able to do, to be able to bring something to the table, because usually they hire themselves, they don't want to do it. Another reason why I try to keep my strategies and posted things more simple and to the point. Let's talk about that.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: Let's talk about that. Why do you need to keep your marketing strategy simple? Let's talk about why and what that looks like.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Hey, this is Dana from society gal. And I wanted to take a quick break to tell you about the society gal Academy, the exclusive membership that helps entrepreneurs like you launched grow and scale your business. Join weekly expert led workshops, access to on demand courses, and connect with a supportive network of go getters just like you. Are you ready to elevate your business? Visit society gal Academy today.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: I think why? There are a lot of reasons, but my main ones are because, one, people don't want to read all that. I had a client that I worked for. We did just, what is it? A PowerPoint slide presentation of multiple just things. And I told her, like, this time around when I was creating those strategies, please, let's talk your dagger, because they probably don't. I mean, they know that the carousels.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: Are you talking about the carousels?
[00:15:16] Speaker A: No, it's like a. So you know how Google has the power, not PowerPoint.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So it was like maybe around ten to 15 for social media strategy or a marketing strategy, which is what, to me, that was just too much. So I was just like, and nobody wants to read all that and go through all that. Some people might, but usually people aren't time for that. So that's one thing that I like to keep it simple. As we put our KPI's, we put our dates and awareness and events and all that. We add our topics, our monthly themes, we add our content pillars, we add everything that we're going through for that specific month or that specific quarter, and that's pretty much it. And unless I need like email or blog or things like that to some clients, I do that for as well. That's all I really need. We usually have a separate doc for target audience, company voice and branding and stuff. But that's branding and it's separate from social media. I just try to incorporate that. And even with posts, sometimes I can get a little long winded when I post my clients because I just like to talk and I'm very, like, poetic sometimes with my words, which can get kind of long, but usually the client just wants to get to the point. And usually somebody's reading something, they want to get to the point. Unless I'm like purposely reading a book, I don't want to read a book on social media. So I want you to tell me what you want. Do you want me to buy this or why, why should I, what should I buy, why and how? Let's get to that point and who also who I'm buying from. And so people do like to see you. They like you to show up and you to put more personal effort into your social media. But even that could be simple. That could just be adding your picture instead of a graphic. And then I, with a caption that has a diploma.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: Yeah. And I feel like, do you go into people's businesses and kind of just break down their complicated plan and simplify?
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I have been known to do that because I'm like, I don't even know, what is this? So, of course, in like a kind and gentle way. But I asked them, do you truly need to break down in three slides the problems of your target audience? Or should that just be a paragraph with some bullet points? Like, here are their problems, one, two, three, you know, whatever. Like, yes, that's good. And that helps. But not every single strategy that would create it, not in three slides.
[00:17:32] Speaker C: And when it's simpler, it's more direct and it prevents the overthinking thing. Like, am I doing this right? Oh, I gotta do this. I gotta do this. But I think there's so much strength. Like you said, there's so much strength in a really simple strategy and focusing on one really great thing at a time. Like one strategy that works, that's proven, that's working well, and then putting everyone's capacity into one thing compared to spreading thin. I think when we see all these gurus in social media, this is what you should be doing. We think we should be doing everything. And that just makes absolutely no sense. And why all of us get nowhere by doing that.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: There's a creator that I actually used to follow that would always have webinars on how to gain, like, 50,000. It was either 50,000 followers. Yeah, it was followers on, like, Instagram or TikTok within the first, like 30 days and stuff like that. And I went to the webinar because I was interested, but it's like, very specific and it's like, also not realistic. And I tried and I was just like, I know this is not realistic, and I wonder how many people this has really helped. And that makes me honestly kind of frustrated because I'm like, just give us something that is simple and realistic. Like, yes, we might want 50,000 followers, but that's not going to be overnight. Even if something goes viral most times, that doesn't even get you that many followers.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: So, yeah, like, what is a strategy that's going to actually bring a real return? Because I like how you're saying that. Like, the numbers, I mean, the whole vanity metric thing. Like, I think we should all know that by now. But a big reminder is like, you know, we talk about on the podcast with multiple people, you had 20,000 followers, only make $2,000 a month kind of thing, because there is no strategy. Often, like, 50,000 followers is not a strategy. Would you say that that's not a social media strategy that's going to just happen? I mean, there's funnels and all that stuff that I'm sure you're involved in or at least help with to get people in and leads in. But I love this. And so how can someone kind of assess their own marketing strategy right now? If they're going to look at the marketing strategy, how would they assess that to really strengthen it right now?
[00:19:31] Speaker A: I would say one, make sure you know who you're talking to and who you're trying to market to, whether that may need to do some more branding building or you just need to kind of brain dump that on a piece of paper because it's hard to market to everyone. And I've worked with somebody who wants to market with everyone who doesn't work. So that would be my first thing, is just know who you want to market to and then build out a simple step or maybe a simple, I guess, three or four content pillars. And by content pillars and me, we're talking about on day one, on Monday, promote the CFA. Coming up on Wednesday, we're going to talk about how we're going to build a community. On Friday, we're going to talk about something personal to you and your business and just put your face out there. And then from that, you can create a content calendar and just kind of talk or put that. Okay, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week of this month, whatever. That's how I would start. And I would just select, you know, personal, like I said, the personal days on Fridays. Or just adding your likes and dislikes and stuff, too.
[00:20:39] Speaker C: Yeah. And stick to it. I think that's the hardest part, because you could do more complicated strategies like, you know, Facebook ads and other platforms. Be a TikTok, star, LinkedIn, whatever it is. But I mean, just like anything, a habit needs steps to build up. You can't just. I'm pretty sure a lot of us have gone through, let's do seven times a week. Let's just go in. Let's go at it. And then you're burnt out in, like, two weeks. I like how you said, having structured with brand pillars, that's something super simple that a lot of us have probably heard, but very few of us have stuck to. Right. So, I mean, it's just sticking to that simple thing, like you said, and then build from there, and then ask yourself the question, you know, what are my goals now? Or what leads do I want now? And how can I get there with a Facebook ad or a mini chat set up or finding them somewhere else and then expanding on that. But it's like that foundation they talked about.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: I will say to also pick one or two platforms. Like, we don't need to be everywhere. I, for my personal brand, I love LinkedIn. I'm not even on Instagram anymore, but for some of my clients there, and so we use that for them, even I can get burned out with my personal brand. Great. Sticking to multiple accounts. So if I know I can, then I know you can. So just choose one or two platforms and you stay consistent.
[00:21:53] Speaker C: Do it well. Do that one thing well. There's a big difference. Yeah, I feel like we all have that fomo of not doing what we need to be doing, too. You should be doing this strategy. But listen to Ariel. Keep it simple. Keep it super simple. If you are social media strategist, keep it simple for your clients. What a relief and reassurance to be told. This is the simple process. Let's just stick to it for three to six months and see how we're going to start analyzing it and seeing the growth from there. That's very reassuring that someone can walk you through that. Even as a social media manager, I mean, sorry, strategist, I'm sure that's a big reassurance for clients is setting that up a not like lines and funnels and bubbles everywhere on a page of this is our strategy kind of thing.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: I can't even do that if I try it. I just know that it's not what this client needs. And most of my clients are smaller businesses. Well, they're pretty established, but they're on a smaller site. They're not fortunate, so they don't need all that.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: And like what you said, like, and most people listening are small and most of us listening are small businesses too. Yeah, but I like how you said, what do you need? Like what do you really need? What is really necessary? Like, there's so much we could do with so little. I like that. Even if you are a social media strategist, what does client actually need? What do we as businesses actually need to get clients in and hone down on one. And there's so much power in that. Sticking to a simple strategy and hopefully you listening to this, feel that reassurance of a simpleness, concise, clean strategy that's not fancy and it's just like going to the gym. I'm probably, maybe I said this in another podcast I probably have because I go to the gym a lot. But it's like you can't just go in and like all these fancy machines and figure it out or even just the barbell. Like, you just can't just go in there and, and, okay, I'm going to put a 35, 45 pound plate on a barbell and just do that. You know, it's just like you can't do that with anything. So I mean, it may seem boring and it may seem simple and may seems too simple that it feels too good to be true. But I mean, Ariel's just saying it right with the habit building and the foundational stuff. Totally agree. Well, thank you so much for sharing so many great things and just keeping that marketing strategy simple and strong. I think that is just an amazing, amazing message. So before we get off, I would just love to hear like one of your biggest learning lessons in your business.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Setting boundaries and saying, now that has helped me to maintain my sanity. Sometimes you're not meant to work with every client. I'm not meant to work with every person that comes my way. And I'm also not meant to spend every waking hour working on it's okay to say no. I can't get to this right now. I'm sorry. That's been my biggest thing recently, is just setting up boundaries and saying no so that I'm able to run my business and be free to spend time with my husband, spend time with my puppy and all that. But I can't do that if I'm saying yes to everything and everyone. Yes.
[00:24:35] Speaker C: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing and coming on the podcast. And where can everyone connect with you? On social media or our website or any of that podcast, whatever you have to share.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: My website is authentica influence. And that's authentic with an a and influence.com. and then my LinkedIn is LinkedIn.com. arieljacksondaniels. So that's where I am.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: The place where she shines is LinkedIn.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: That's where you want to find her. I love that. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on and I hope you've wonderful day.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Thank you.
