Emma Tessler, Founder + CEO of Ninety Five Media

[00:00:00] You're listening to Scaling Up Services where we speak with entrepreneurs, authors, business

[00:00:06] experts and thought leaders to give you the knowledge and insights you need to scale your

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[00:00:15] And now here is your host, business coach Bruce Eckfeldt.

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[00:01:20] Now back to our episode.

[00:01:23] Welcome everyone.

[00:01:24] This is Scaling Up Services.

[00:01:25] I'm Bruce Eckfeldt.

[00:01:26] I'm your host.

[00:01:27] Our guest today is Emma Tesler.

[00:01:28] She is founder at 95 Media.

[00:01:30] She's also podcast host.

[00:01:32] We're going to talk a little bit about the work that she does in marketing, digital

[00:01:35] marketing, how to scale businesses.

[00:01:37] I think this is an interesting and often challenging space for companies in general,

[00:01:42] but certainly services companies.

[00:01:44] How do you generate leads?

[00:01:45] How do you build awareness?

[00:01:46] How do you create demand for your services?

[00:01:48] It's a big one.

[00:01:50] Emma has some real experience here and understanding of really how things work both from a philosophy

[00:01:56] point of view, from a system point of view, but also where we are in terms of digital marketing.

[00:02:00] These platforms are changing and evolving and under legal review and things like that

[00:02:05] at various points.

[00:02:06] So this can be a very challenging space, but also it would be a really lucrative

[00:02:10] space if you go ahead and really use it and set up the systems and kind of tap

[00:02:13] into it.

[00:02:14] So excited for this and excited for the conversation.

[00:02:16] See what we learned.

[00:02:17] With all that, Emma, welcome to the program.

[00:02:19] Thank you.

[00:02:20] I'm so excited to be here today.

[00:02:21] Yeah, it's a pleasure having you on.

[00:02:23] Before we dig into what you're doing today with 95 Media and the podcast and digital

[00:02:28] marketing, let's get some background.

[00:02:29] How did you get into this space?

[00:02:31] What's the backstory?

[00:02:32] For sure.

[00:02:33] Yeah, marketing was not the avenue I thought I would take with my life by any means.

[00:02:38] Certainly not social media because as we all know, 10 years ago, the landscape of

[00:02:43] social media marketing really didn't exist.

[00:02:46] It was very, you know, small, if anything.

[00:02:49] My career actually started in interior design and that was, you know, my first path.

[00:02:56] And through that industry, I really discovered the social media marketing space at a job

[00:03:03] that I was at.

[00:03:04] And this person back in 2015 was looking to grow her business and she said, I think

[00:03:10] I've heard of people using Instagram for business.

[00:03:14] And you look into that and figure that out for me.

[00:03:16] And so that was just kind of how I got thrown into the weeds with it.

[00:03:21] And it just opened my eyes to this whole new world.

[00:03:24] And it was really inspiring because I could see where this was going to go.

[00:03:30] It just seemed like so much potential.

[00:03:32] And, you know, of course, over the past nine years since then we've seen just

[00:03:36] the absolute explosion of social media marketing.

[00:03:39] So today I am the founder of 95 Media and we're a digital marketing agency really

[00:03:45] specializing in organic social media marketing.

[00:03:48] And what we're able to do is infuse strategy into content for our

[00:03:53] clients' brands on social so that you get out of that, like, hamster wheel

[00:03:58] of constantly creating, constantly posting and actually start seeing the results

[00:04:03] because that's the big shift that we see a lot of brands really going through

[00:04:07] is that everyone's creating content today, but very few brands are actually

[00:04:11] seeing that ROI.

[00:04:11] And so that's really where we come in.

[00:04:13] But we're a woman run agency.

[00:04:15] Our team is all women and we're really just lit up by this work because

[00:04:20] we're able to support brands in actually growing their businesses

[00:04:23] through the power of social media marketing.

[00:04:25] Yeah, interesting.

[00:04:26] And I'm always fascinated for folks that kind of transition into these

[00:04:29] new careers and stuff like what did you find were kind of skills that

[00:04:33] you had that allow you to be successful when starting the business?

[00:04:35] And what were some of the things that were kind of challenging that you had

[00:04:38] to learn as you started things and started to grow?

[00:04:41] Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that I was able to leverage as I

[00:04:45] transitioned into marketing from design was as an interior designer, people

[00:04:50] don't realize how much psychology really goes into interior design.

[00:04:54] And, you know, like when you step into someone's home or their office, I

[00:04:58] was doing a lot of corporate design at the time.

[00:05:00] You really kind of need to look around and capture the essence of who

[00:05:04] someone is and how they want their space to reflect them because they're

[00:05:08] not going to be able to put that into words.

[00:05:11] And so it's kind of this underlying personal branding that I was always

[00:05:15] tapping into whenever I was doing interior design work.

[00:05:19] And the same really goes for businesses, you know, as I began to

[00:05:23] step into someone's business and essentially act as their entire marketing

[00:05:27] department, you know, they didn't necessarily know what I needed to

[00:05:30] know.

[00:05:31] They didn't have materials to pass that off, especially in those early days

[00:05:34] when no one really understood what was needed for social media.

[00:05:37] And so even today, you know, being able to come into someone's brand and

[00:05:42] capture their brand voice and represent who they are in a different

[00:05:46] way that actually connects with their audience has just been really

[00:05:50] integral to our brand and just the work that we do.

[00:05:54] But I mean, one of the challenges I had was definitely building the

[00:05:58] business, I would say, you know, I left corporate when I was 25 and

[00:06:02] I, no one knows what they're doing.

[00:06:05] I still don't know what I'm doing.

[00:06:06] I mean, like we're all just faking it and figuring it out.

[00:06:10] Exactly.

[00:06:11] So I mean, as I transitioned into just really building a brand at such

[00:06:16] a young age and building a team and managing clients and team

[00:06:20] members and business, I think those were some of the challenges that

[00:06:23] were just the biggest surprise, I would say.

[00:06:25] Yeah.

[00:06:26] And they still, you know, we all still are faced with those

[00:06:29] challenges every single day, but I think now they're just less of a

[00:06:31] surprise.

[00:06:33] And they're just like, okay, got it.

[00:06:35] Like we're just doing this again.

[00:06:37] Fascinating.

[00:06:38] So talk to me a little bit about social media.

[00:06:39] I mean, you mentioned 10 years ago, this didn't really exist.

[00:06:42] Like how have things evolved?

[00:06:44] Where are we today?

[00:06:45] Give us a little bit of the kind of the journey that social media has been on.

[00:06:50] I mean, I think that everything has changed, to be honest.

[00:06:53] 10 years ago, several of these platforms didn't exist.

[00:06:57] You know, TikTok didn't exist 10 years ago.

[00:07:00] And it's really interesting to take a zoom out on social media marketing,

[00:07:05] because there's kind of these waves that happen with social media.

[00:07:09] You know, I would say if you're looking at the past 10 years, 2014 to

[00:07:14] about 2017, not a lot was really happening.

[00:07:18] Like things were just kind of staying the same.

[00:07:19] We were all just kind of learning what social media was posting

[00:07:23] bad filtered photos of sunsets and moving on with our lives.

[00:07:26] And by 2017, I would say there was more brand awareness of social media.

[00:07:32] And 2017, 2018 really kicked off.

[00:07:35] If anyone listening is was on social at this time, it kicked off the

[00:07:39] explosion that was to come of online businesses, which really, I would

[00:07:44] say exploded in around 2018, 2019, but the beginnings of that

[00:07:49] definitely started in 2017.

[00:07:50] So people were building these personal brands primarily on social and

[00:07:55] growing these really large audiences because you could and there was,

[00:07:58] you know, the algorithm didn't exist.

[00:07:59] It was still chronological.

[00:08:01] Yeah.

[00:08:01] You know, and so there was a lot of opportunity at that time on these

[00:08:05] platforms to do a lot.

[00:08:07] And then we saw that from about 2017 to 2019.

[00:08:11] And then when the pandemic hit in 2020, that just caused the most massive

[00:08:16] shift, right?

[00:08:17] Because that was when TikTok came onto the scene, which then

[00:08:22] consequently impacted every other platform with regards to video content

[00:08:29] and the pace of content and the amount of content that is needed.

[00:08:33] And it's been this trickle down effect that we're still seeing the impact

[00:08:37] of even today in 2024, I just saw a release yesterday that LinkedIn

[00:08:44] is now testing a video only feed on their platform.

[00:08:48] So interesting.

[00:08:49] Yeah.

[00:08:50] You know, like these platforms are still adapting and they're changing

[00:08:54] faster than ever.

[00:08:55] And that's really why it's so important to be in tune with what's going on

[00:08:59] because the strategy that you were using six months ago is no longer

[00:09:04] going to be applicable in today's world of social media marketing.

[00:09:08] And it's really important to make sure that you're up to date and that

[00:09:11] your marketing is shifting with the consumers needs as well.

[00:09:15] Yeah.

[00:09:16] I guess where are we in terms of some of these platforms?

[00:09:18] There are certain platforms that are better for certain types of businesses

[00:09:23] or reaching certain types of audiences.

[00:09:25] I mean, how do you kind of navigate the myriad platforms that are out there

[00:09:30] and figuring out like where should you be?

[00:09:33] Should I be on all of them?

[00:09:34] Do I need to focus?

[00:09:35] Where do I focus?

[00:09:36] Like it helped us understand kind of the platforms at this point.

[00:09:39] That's a really good question.

[00:09:40] I mean, a lot of people feel like they need to do it all in

[00:09:44] order to actually see results.

[00:09:46] And I don't think that's necessary.

[00:09:48] I think that if you can do one or two platforms really well, then

[00:09:53] you're going to actually see higher conversions than spreading your content

[00:09:56] thin and creating a diluted message across more platforms than are necessary.

[00:10:02] The way to determine this is kind of always when I go back to determining

[00:10:06] the platforms you should be on really comes down to two big factors.

[00:10:10] In my opinion, the first one is your target audience.

[00:10:14] Who is your target audience?

[00:10:15] And where are they?

[00:10:16] What is their online behavior really look like?

[00:10:19] If you're targeting an audience or the majority of your audience is 40 and

[00:10:23] under, TikTok is still really relevant.

[00:10:26] I know that a lot of people look at TikTok still as this Gen Z platform,

[00:10:30] but it's really not.

[00:10:32] The age range is really increasing on TikTok.

[00:10:35] And also something to think about is maybe your target audience is in their

[00:10:40] fifties, but they have children in their twenties.

[00:10:43] And so if that's the case, their children influence their buying decisions

[00:10:47] and their children could be sending them videos from TikTok or saying, Hey,

[00:10:50] dad, you really need to get on TikTok.

[00:10:52] You really need to be looking at these videos.

[00:10:54] So you also need to look at the influences in your target audience's life.

[00:10:57] So where are they?

[00:10:58] What are they consuming?

[00:10:59] Where are they buying?

[00:11:00] Where are they searching?

[00:11:01] Because you really want to make sure you're coming up in those

[00:11:03] searches no matter where they're doing that.

[00:11:06] And then the second piece of decision is what is your content banned with?

[00:11:10] Because that is really ultimately, that's going to be your decision

[00:11:13] driver here because the amount of content that's needed really varies

[00:11:17] between platforms, but it's going up all the time.

[00:11:21] And so over on TikTok, you're going to need a lot more content and

[00:11:26] it's going to need to be 99% video content in order to build traction

[00:11:31] on that platform.

[00:11:32] But when you look at Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, you can kind

[00:11:36] of push your video content to about 50% of the content you're posting.

[00:11:40] So say you have some photos on hand and you have video content that

[00:11:45] you're able to produce over time, those, you know, Instagram, Facebook,

[00:11:49] LinkedIn, maybe better platforms for you.

[00:11:51] So really being realistic about who can support you with content creation?

[00:11:56] How much content can you actually be realistically posting and do that

[00:12:00] consistently too?

[00:12:01] And that's where a lot of people get caught up is, Oh, well, you know,

[00:12:04] I'm not busy right now.

[00:12:04] I have a lot of time to shoot content and then that content yields a result for

[00:12:08] you. And then now you're busy and now you don't have time to shoot the content.

[00:12:13] So your marketing falls off again, and I see a lot of businesses just go

[00:12:16] through that cycle, which you really want to avoid.

[00:12:18] Yeah, feast and famine.

[00:12:19] Yeah.

[00:12:21] So, I mean, you mentioned video here.

[00:12:23] How do you kind of choose or how do you look at the types of content

[00:12:27] that you can be producing?

[00:12:28] And what's kind of most powerful now and why?

[00:12:32] Yeah.

[00:12:32] So the most powerful video content is going to be people focused and even

[00:12:39] more specifically, more behind the scenes storytelling focused.

[00:12:44] So oftentimes we work with businesses who they it's them.

[00:12:49] We work primarily with small businesses, right?

[00:12:51] So we're talking about 10 employees or less.

[00:12:54] And the founder is typically front facing.

[00:12:57] People know the founder.

[00:12:58] They're sort of the face of the brand, but they're very hesitant

[00:13:01] to get into content because they just don't feel comfortable.

[00:13:04] And we come in and we say, Hey, you're going to hate us, but you're

[00:13:08] going to love us because you're going to see a result.

[00:13:10] But we're going to make you get in front of video content.

[00:13:13] And what starts to happen is you can post about your service.

[00:13:18] You can post about your brand.

[00:13:19] You can post about what it is that you do all day every day.

[00:13:23] But the content that has someone in it, primarily the person that people

[00:13:28] know, so if that's the founder, then that would be who should be in the video

[00:13:31] content that is going to outperform any content that you post ever.

[00:13:37] Because what you're doing is you're building that human connection.

[00:13:41] And when we're going on social, yes, we're going online technically

[00:13:46] and we're kind of dissociating from like the space around us.

[00:13:49] And we're not being, you're not having human interaction, but we are

[00:13:52] looking for human connection and we're looking to feel connected with

[00:13:57] the person on the other side of the screen.

[00:14:00] So when you can talk to an experience or tell a story, that is going to do really well.

[00:14:07] So for a lot of the small businesses that we work with, we really encourage

[00:14:12] them to film some like come with me style videos.

[00:14:17] So we have an artist that we're working with and you know, it's not

[00:14:21] service, but she is the brand and she does a lot of custom projects.

[00:14:26] So people work with her directly and she provides the product.

[00:14:30] So she'll do like prints or turn her art into a scarf print or whatever that looks

[00:14:35] like, and she's going to an event this week.

[00:14:37] And so we laid out a bunch of videos that we want her to capture at this event

[00:14:42] so that we can then turn that into, you know, like do all the post production

[00:14:44] editing and turn it into content because what we've seen in the past is

[00:14:48] that whenever we post like, Hey, come with me for a brand shoot or come

[00:14:52] with me to design this new offer or this new product or, Hey, I'm going to

[00:14:57] a conference to learn things that are going to serve my clients better.

[00:15:01] These are the types of content that really perform best because we're

[00:15:05] seeing things that make us think that we're not being sold to, but really

[00:15:11] it's the best form of content to sell through.

[00:15:14] Yeah.

[00:15:15] And what do you cover in those things?

[00:15:17] I guess how much are you trying to create personal connection versus

[00:15:20] explain your service versus give kind of educational insights?

[00:15:25] Like what is their kind of direction to this content that you find most

[00:15:28] kind of impactful?

[00:15:30] Yeah.

[00:15:30] So in those types of videos where we're really focusing on the behind

[00:15:34] the scenes, we're not talking about the service or offer at all.

[00:15:38] It's very much just about what's happening in the video.

[00:15:42] So for example, I was just speaking at an event in Chicago last week.

[00:15:47] And so I filmed throughout the entire day.

[00:15:50] I was just filming little clips about my day and then we stitched that all

[00:15:53] together.

[00:15:54] And then I did a voiceover on top of it, just kind of explaining the

[00:15:58] experience of why was I speaking at this event?

[00:16:00] Who was the audience, the topics that we covered, why we were so excited

[00:16:04] to be there.

[00:16:05] And what that content does is although it's not selling the specific

[00:16:10] service that you offer, what it's doing is building authority and leadership

[00:16:15] in your space.

[00:16:16] People are seeing that you're in demand, that you're doing all these

[00:16:20] things in your industry, that you're speaking to different audiences, and

[00:16:23] that you're able to support in a bunch of different ways.

[00:16:26] And I actually tied that video back to the fact that we at 95 media,

[00:16:32] we've never just depended on social media marketing as our only

[00:16:35] marketing avenue, but that speaking engagements are another form of

[00:16:39] marketing and this is how you can start tapping into it.

[00:16:42] So like we don't offer speaking engagement support for our clients,

[00:16:46] but it's speaking to marketing, which is what we do at the core of everything.

[00:16:50] So there's a bunch of different angles and I think the benefit of, you

[00:16:54] know, working with an agency or working with a team member on developing

[00:16:58] that marketing material, which is, you know, what we do for our clients

[00:17:01] is that we're able to come in and say, okay, we want you to shoot these

[00:17:04] clips, but then in the voiceover on this video, we're going to switch

[00:17:07] the angle and we're going to talk about something different because the

[00:17:10] way to keep people really engaged is when what they're seeing and what

[00:17:14] they're hearing don't necessarily correlate, which sounds a little confusing.

[00:17:19] Little psychological trick there.

[00:17:20] Yeah.

[00:17:20] It really is dissonance.

[00:17:22] Yeah.

[00:17:22] It really works because you're listening to me talk about marketing

[00:17:26] and, you know, like why speaking engagements are great.

[00:17:29] And in this specific speaking engagement, it, I related it back

[00:17:32] to my interior design career and it was like this whole story that

[00:17:35] I was telling, but in the video, it's just me like walking

[00:17:38] through a hallway and then speaking at the conference and then

[00:17:40] there's tables and then me getting on a plane home and it's

[00:17:42] completely disconnected, but it performed really well because it

[00:17:46] keeps people engaged watching the entire video because they want to

[00:17:48] hear what's coming next in the story.

[00:17:51] Interesting.

[00:17:52] And so you mentioned that you do more than just social media or

[00:17:55] people should do more than social media when thinking about their

[00:17:57] overall marketing kind of strategy.

[00:17:59] What are some of the other things that you tie in or that

[00:18:02] company should be considering in terms of creating a holistic

[00:18:05] marketing strategy beyond just social media?

[00:18:10] Right.

[00:18:10] So social media is the foundation I like to look at it as.

[00:18:15] So that is going to be how people find you and probably decide

[00:18:21] if they want to work with you or not, because social media is

[00:18:24] the new search engine.

[00:18:26] So even if people are still going to Google their first place

[00:18:30] they're going to go, maybe it's your website, they're

[00:18:32] going to go right to your social media links at the bottom

[00:18:33] of the site, or they're not even going to go to your

[00:18:35] website.

[00:18:35] They're just going to find your Instagram, your TikTok,

[00:18:37] your LinkedIn, whatever that looks like.

[00:18:39] So you want to make sure that your social media presence is

[00:18:42] locked in.

[00:18:43] It's in a great place.

[00:18:44] It's showing what you do, how you help who you serve.

[00:18:47] But at the same time it can't be the only thing that we depend

[00:18:51] on because we're building on borrowed land, right?

[00:18:53] We don't own our audience.

[00:18:55] Our profiles could disappear tomorrow.

[00:18:58] The platform could get shut down.

[00:18:59] We have no idea.

[00:19:00] And so it's really important to diversify and create that

[00:19:03] holistic marketing strategy as you said.

[00:19:05] And the other elements to do that, our favorites are

[00:19:10] email marketing because with your email list you do own

[00:19:13] your email list of course.

[00:19:14] And so really the biggest goal with social media is that

[00:19:17] you're building this audience to get them off the platform.

[00:19:20] So the easiest way to do that is get them onto your email

[00:19:23] list.

[00:19:23] And then of course podcasting is such a great way as well

[00:19:27] because it goes both ways.

[00:19:29] So with a podcast we're creating content that we can

[00:19:33] then share to social media to build the audience for the

[00:19:36] podcast.

[00:19:37] But through doing that we're creating more value for our

[00:19:41] audience on social because we're able to create this long

[00:19:44] form audio, maybe even some video from the podcast that

[00:19:48] we're then sharing with our audience there whether or not

[00:19:51] they click through to it.

[00:19:52] But if they click through then they can subscribe and

[00:19:55] then we can get in front of them more often because

[00:19:57] really what it comes down to is how often can I get

[00:19:59] in front of this audience in different ways?

[00:20:01] Because we need to see a brand seven to 20 times before we

[00:20:05] typically want to buy or reach out and consider buying.

[00:20:08] And so it always goes back to how many times can I get in

[00:20:12] front of them?

[00:20:13] So that's kind of how I look at it.

[00:20:14] And of course public speaking, speaking engagements, getting

[00:20:17] on other people's podcasts is just a really great way to

[00:20:20] again tap into another audience that you're not

[00:20:23] necessarily having to build, but you're able to connect

[00:20:27] with people in a group that you know is your target

[00:20:30] audience.

[00:20:30] So I think most people I talk to that are in these kind of

[00:20:33] companies looking to develop marketing strategies, get

[00:20:36] pretty overwhelmed with kind of the options in front of them

[00:20:39] in terms of social media and developing content and

[00:20:41] shooting videos and all these things.

[00:20:43] Like what's the process for kind of figuring out like if

[00:20:47] you're a candidate or if you should be using some kind

[00:20:50] of social media strategy, what kind of strategies you

[00:20:52] should be using what platforms usually so help us kind

[00:20:55] of boil this down into a couple of steps people can

[00:20:58] take to develop at least a first couple steps on this.

[00:21:02] Well, everyone should have a social media strategy.

[00:21:04] Let's start there.

[00:21:07] Let's not just post a social and hope for the best.

[00:21:10] We definitely want to make sure there's a strategy

[00:21:13] integrated into what you're doing because like I said

[00:21:16] earlier, you know, a lot of people get caught up in

[00:21:18] this idea that they're constantly creating, but

[00:21:20] then nothing's coming out of it.

[00:21:22] And that's really discouraging.

[00:21:24] So where I would recommend you begin is going back

[00:21:27] to those decision factors of where you should show up.

[00:21:29] What's your content banned with and who is your target audience?

[00:21:32] Right.

[00:21:33] So with that information, you can then decide which

[00:21:35] platforms you're going to be on.

[00:21:37] Depending on which platforms you're going to be on, that's

[00:21:39] going to then determine the rough amount of content

[00:21:42] you should be producing every week for those platforms.

[00:21:46] And then you of course, then go into the actual

[00:21:48] content creation, building community, looking at

[00:21:51] your data, et cetera.

[00:21:53] I obviously am a little biased.

[00:21:54] I do think that you should probably work with the

[00:21:57] experts to determine some of this information just

[00:22:00] because they can guide you and shorten that time span of how

[00:22:05] long it will take from beginning to post to actually

[00:22:08] seeing results, because truly that's what we're all after.

[00:22:11] What you're looking to do is you're looking to create

[00:22:13] content that builds an audience that engages with

[00:22:16] your content, clicks over to wherever you're trying

[00:22:19] to send them and ultimately buys from you.

[00:22:21] And the goal here is to shorten that timeline so that

[00:22:25] you're seeing the results in a few weeks, maybe even a

[00:22:29] few months rather than a few years.

[00:22:31] And I've worked with so many brands who come to me

[00:22:33] and are like, I have been on Instagram for five years.

[00:22:36] I'm so done.

[00:22:37] We're not seeing results.

[00:22:39] We only get content, referrals or word of mouth.

[00:22:42] And I'm so over it, like it's not worth doing.

[00:22:45] And if that's the experience that you're having, it's

[00:22:48] just because you don't have the right strategy in place.

[00:22:50] These social media platforms, 100% should be yielding results.

[00:22:55] But it really just comes down to creating the right

[00:22:57] content that's speaking to your audience.

[00:22:59] But if you're not able to outsource, bring in an

[00:23:02] agency like 95 media, I'd really just consistently go

[00:23:06] back to your data because your data is always going

[00:23:09] to tell you what you need to know.

[00:23:10] It's going to tell you what your audience is enjoying,

[00:23:13] what they're engaging with the most, what they're

[00:23:15] just not liking from you.

[00:23:17] You got to scrap that and start doing the things

[00:23:20] that your audience wants to see.

[00:23:22] Oftentimes people come to me and they're doing a lot

[00:23:25] of what they enjoy doing and what's easy for them, but

[00:23:29] it's not actually working for their audience.

[00:23:31] And so you really want to be in tune with what

[00:23:33] your audience is enjoying and engaging with because

[00:23:37] that is going to be how the algorithm begins

[00:23:39] to favor you and your content begins to convert faster.

[00:23:44] Yeah.

[00:23:44] And what are some of the common mistakes that

[00:23:47] people make?

[00:23:47] I mean, you mentioned inconsistency and posting.

[00:23:50] There are other ones that typically really hurt

[00:23:52] your social media performance.

[00:23:55] Yeah.

[00:23:55] So definitely inconsistency is probably the biggest one

[00:23:58] that I see.

[00:24:00] You know, you get into that feast and famine as we

[00:24:02] were saying, you're posting a lot and then the

[00:24:04] posts start working as when you stop posting

[00:24:05] all together and then you have to go through

[00:24:07] that cycle all over again once you are low

[00:24:10] in work again.

[00:24:12] The second one would be not posting enough.

[00:24:14] And I think that a lot of brands that don't have,

[00:24:17] you know, an agency or someone in house doing their

[00:24:19] marketing aren't really aware of the amount of

[00:24:22] content that's needed because it's gone up a lot.

[00:24:25] So for reference, the amount of content I'd

[00:24:28] recommend posting to Instagram and Facebook

[00:24:30] today would be five times a week.

[00:24:32] So that's five posts to your feed every week.

[00:24:35] And that also does not include you want to

[00:24:38] be doing daily Instagram stories, showing

[00:24:41] behind the scenes, linking to your website,

[00:24:44] your services in your stories, because you

[00:24:46] can include those live links, which are really

[00:24:48] valuable and showing more about your company

[00:24:51] culture, your team, brand, etc.

[00:24:54] Over on TikTok though, the content needs

[00:24:57] are a lot more.

[00:24:58] I would say that four to five times a week

[00:25:00] is like the minimum you'd want to be posting

[00:25:02] to TikTok.

[00:25:03] But daily content, if not three times daily

[00:25:07] content is actually really normal over on

[00:25:09] TikTok.

[00:25:10] Wow.

[00:25:10] Yeah.

[00:25:10] So it's a lot of content.

[00:25:12] And if you're posting three times a week

[00:25:15] to Instagram and then trying to just cross

[00:25:18] pollinate that content over to TikTok, it's

[00:25:21] not going to work for you because not only

[00:25:23] is it not enough content, but the culture

[00:25:25] on TikTok is extremely different than the

[00:25:28] culture on Instagram.

[00:25:30] And that brings me to my last one, which

[00:25:31] I would say is that your cross pollinating

[00:25:34] content without editing at all specifically

[00:25:37] video content.

[00:25:38] Sometimes people think that they can take a

[00:25:39] video that did well over on Instagram and

[00:25:43] just repost it over on TikTok.

[00:25:45] And it's not going to work that way.

[00:25:47] Not only does the algorithm not want to see

[00:25:51] text or any edits from a different

[00:25:53] platform, but the trends and what

[00:25:56] performs well on Instagram is just not

[00:25:58] what performs well over on TikTok.

[00:26:00] So that's just why you really want to

[00:26:02] make sure you're in tune or another

[00:26:03] reason why you want to make sure you're

[00:26:04] in tune with the platforms and what your

[00:26:06] audience is really looking for because

[00:26:08] you're no longer really able to just

[00:26:11] copy and paste between the different

[00:26:13] social media platforms.

[00:26:14] Yeah.

[00:26:15] And what are their types of industries,

[00:26:17] types of service companies that you find

[00:26:19] do particularly well on some of these

[00:26:21] platforms and then types of service

[00:26:22] companies that just don't, you know,

[00:26:23] it's like social media is just not a

[00:26:25] great channel for them for marketing.

[00:26:27] I think the ones that do the best are

[00:26:29] the ones that have a face to the

[00:26:31] brand, to be honest.

[00:26:33] It's really difficult to create

[00:26:36] highly converting content that's

[00:26:38] faceless in today's marketing

[00:26:40] space.

[00:26:41] So if you are a brand without

[00:26:44] a face, meaning that there's not one

[00:26:46] person representing the brand, it's

[00:26:49] totally fine.

[00:26:50] But I would invest in content

[00:26:52] creators who can create

[00:26:54] a face for you and be the face of

[00:26:57] the consumer because if you don't

[00:26:58] have a face of the brand, you need to

[00:27:00] put a face to the consumer and you

[00:27:01] need to get people showing

[00:27:03] or talking about what it is that

[00:27:05] you do that helps them

[00:27:07] or begin tapping into influencer

[00:27:09] marketing.

[00:27:10] Influencer marketing requires a bit

[00:27:11] more of a budget and it's just a

[00:27:13] totally different strategy than

[00:27:15] utilizing content creators.

[00:27:16] But those would be avenues I'd look

[00:27:18] at if, you know, you've done all

[00:27:19] the things and you just don't have

[00:27:21] a face to your brand.

[00:27:22] And so it's creating that challenge

[00:27:23] for you.

[00:27:25] Other suggestions you have for

[00:27:26] companies that are interested in kind

[00:27:27] of pursuing this or investigating

[00:27:29] whether social media can be a good

[00:27:32] resource for them or a good tool

[00:27:33] for them.

[00:27:34] I really recommend probably

[00:27:36] talking to some experts

[00:27:38] and talking to people who could

[00:27:39] support them.

[00:27:40] It's definitely not something that

[00:27:42] you need to be doing on your own

[00:27:44] as, you know, the founder or as

[00:27:46] the leader of the brand.

[00:27:47] There's just so many companies

[00:27:49] out there that can support with

[00:27:51] elevating a social media marketing

[00:27:53] strategy, creating one from the

[00:27:55] ground up and really helping you

[00:27:56] see those results, you know,

[00:27:57] whether you want to hire in-house

[00:28:00] or outsource that that's totally

[00:28:01] up to you.

[00:28:02] What a lot of our clients have

[00:28:04] found is that it's actually much

[00:28:05] more expensive to hire in-house

[00:28:07] to handle all of the marketing.

[00:28:08] And so it may be more beneficial

[00:28:11] to look out, but I would get

[00:28:12] some outside opinions because we

[00:28:14] don't know what we don't know.

[00:28:15] And if you're really great at

[00:28:17] what it is that you do, I

[00:28:19] would say stay in that lane, you

[00:28:20] know, do what you're great at

[00:28:22] and outsource the rest.

[00:28:23] But don't let it sit and

[00:28:25] not do your social media

[00:28:27] marketing because it is

[00:28:28] 2024, right?

[00:28:29] And it's not going anywhere.

[00:28:31] It's only going to continue to

[00:28:33] elevate. And your competition

[00:28:36] is marketing their brand on social

[00:28:38] media. So in order to stay

[00:28:39] competitive in the

[00:28:41] future and in the next few years,

[00:28:43] it's absolutely crucial

[00:28:46] that you are marketing your brand

[00:28:48] on these platforms.

[00:28:49] And I do think that we're going

[00:28:50] to see a really large fall

[00:28:53] out in the next few years of

[00:28:54] brands who didn't take it

[00:28:56] seriously and didn't market

[00:28:57] themselves here and then are

[00:28:58] trying to play that catch up

[00:28:59] game, say in like 2027

[00:29:02] because it's just going to be

[00:29:03] such a different ballgame at

[00:29:05] that point. So don't fall into

[00:29:06] that trap. Definitely get into

[00:29:08] it now if you haven't already.

[00:29:10] Yeah. And you mentioned some of

[00:29:11] the future of social media here.

[00:29:13] Like where are things going?

[00:29:14] I mean, I know we're kind of

[00:29:16] in the middle of this TikTok

[00:29:17] issue. We're recording the end

[00:29:19] of March here. But like what

[00:29:21] do you think is going to

[00:29:22] happen with some of these

[00:29:23] platforms? Is there anything

[00:29:24] you're kind of keeping your eye

[00:29:25] on? What does the future kind

[00:29:26] of hold here?

[00:29:27] I'm definitely keeping my eye on

[00:29:29] the way that content is

[00:29:31] shifting because video

[00:29:33] content, the plot.

[00:29:35] So even TikTok that is heavily

[00:29:37] video, it now has some photo

[00:29:39] elements to it and Instagram

[00:29:41] keeps going back and forth

[00:29:43] between photo and video

[00:29:44] and what are they favoring

[00:29:45] and all of that.

[00:29:46] So I'm really watching how are

[00:29:48] these platforms adapting

[00:29:51] to the consumer needs

[00:29:52] and how are they changing

[00:29:54] because just because we look

[00:29:56] at TikTok as a video platform

[00:29:58] right now doesn't mean it's

[00:29:59] going to stay that way.

[00:30:01] And AI is changing a lot

[00:30:03] in the type of content

[00:30:05] that we're creating and that

[00:30:06] we're seeing. Like I said, at

[00:30:07] the beginning, right, we see

[00:30:08] these waves with social media

[00:30:10] and typically these waves are

[00:30:12] like three to four years.

[00:30:15] And if you're looking at the

[00:30:16] wave that started in 2020

[00:30:18] in 2024, we're closing out

[00:30:20] that wave. So I do think

[00:30:21] that we're going to be

[00:30:22] entering into a new wave of

[00:30:24] an unknown to us right now

[00:30:27] of what social is going to

[00:30:28] look like in the next few years.

[00:30:29] And so I'm very interested to

[00:30:31] see how the platforms adapt

[00:30:33] shopping on the platforms has

[00:30:35] made a really big impact in the

[00:30:36] past 12 months.

[00:30:37] And so I think that will continue

[00:30:39] to develop and that's more

[00:30:41] on the product side, but how

[00:30:42] it's going to impact the

[00:30:43] service industry.

[00:30:44] That's really what I'm looking

[00:30:45] to in the next few years.

[00:30:47] Excellent. This has been a

[00:30:48] pleasure.

[00:30:48] I mean, if people want to find

[00:30:49] out more about you, more about

[00:30:51] the work that you do, what's

[00:30:52] the best way to get that

[00:30:52] information?

[00:30:53] Definitely. So our website is

[00:30:55] 95 media dot co

[00:30:57] not dot com. We are dot

[00:30:58] co.

[00:31:00] And on our website has all of

[00:31:01] our information, but we are

[00:31:03] super active over on

[00:31:05] Instagram. Our handle is 90

[00:31:06] dot five dot media.

[00:31:08] And we have a podcast as

[00:31:10] well. It's called Stop Scrolling

[00:31:11] Start Scaling where

[00:31:13] we cover all things marketing

[00:31:15] we really deep dive into all

[00:31:16] the platforms, different

[00:31:18] changes that are happening,

[00:31:19] updates you need to know.

[00:31:20] And so it's a really great

[00:31:21] educational resource if you're

[00:31:23] looking to sort of learn more

[00:31:25] about what's going on and

[00:31:27] what's your support for

[00:31:28] this project.

[00:31:29] And definitely get to know

[00:31:31] more about the content and

[00:31:32] what's your favorite tip or

[00:31:33] tip you're chosen and at this

[00:31:35] point in the game.

[00:31:36] Perfect. I'll make sure that

[00:31:38] the URLs or all the

[00:31:39] information is in the show

[00:31:39] notes so people can get that

[00:31:40] Emma, it's been a pleasure.

[00:31:41] Thank you so much for taking

[00:31:42] the time today.

[00:31:44] Thank you for having me.

[00:31:46] You've been listening to

[00:31:47] Scaling Up services with

[00:31:48] business coach Bruce Eckbelt

[00:31:50] to find a full list of

[00:31:52] podcast episodes, download

[00:31:53] the tools and worksheets

[00:31:54] and access other great

[00:31:56] HealingUpServices.com slash newsletter.

[00:31:59] This podcast is a part of the C-suite radio network.

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