Welcome to Episode 13 of Kickstart the Conversation! In this episode, Catharine talks with Ashley Smith, a social media and digital marketing expert.

In this engaging and insightful episode, Catharine and Ashley dive deep into the world of social media strategies. They explore the mysteries of algorithms, the importance of engagement, and the art of creating a brand persona. They discuss various social media platforms, their unique features, and how to leverage them effectively. With an emphasis on testing, analytics, and having fun, they guide listeners in developing an impactful social media strategy. Whether you're a business owner or a content creator, this episode provides valuable insights and practical tips to enhance your online presence. Get ready to unmask the secrets of social media success!

Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with others. Thanks for tuning in and kickstarting the conversation with us!

About the Guest:

Ashley Smith has been a digital marketer specializing in social media for over a decade! Ashley is the expert in helping people learn how to DO social media. As one of the O.G. social media marketers, she is fluent with the big name platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter...) and has helped hundreds of small business owners, solopreneurs, and non-profit organizations with their social media marketing content and strategy across 25+ industries. Her superpower is keeping tabs on the ways of the Internet, then helping businesses leverage the tools available to establish a stellar online presence and monetize their digital efforts by bringing it all together.

Ashley currently lives with her husband, John, in Minnesota. Their blended family consists of three daughters, two dogs, two cats, and a Harley Davidson Streetglide. 

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About the Host:

Catharine O'Leary is a dynamic speaker, author, and entrepreneur with a wealth of experience in market research, consumer insights, and innovative marketing strategies. She's known as the "quiz queen" and is an expert at asking the right questions to connect with ideal clients and boost business growth. With over three decades of corporate experience, Catharine is passionate about helping entrepreneurs have better conversations with their ideal clients and grow their business with cutting-edge marketing strategies.

https://catharineoleary.com/

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Hey everyone, welcome back to kickstart the conversation. I am Catharine O'Leary, your host. And we are here to talk all things leads, lists and leverage. And I am happy to have Ashley here with me. Ashley is a social media guru. She is she's kind of she her superpower is knowing all things, internet, how they all work together. And then particularly social media, how you create a system that actually draws in your ideal clients and is able to, to leverage that platform. And as you all know, social media is not my forte. That's why I bring people like Ashley on to talk to you. So you get the real deal. And, and, and get actionable results. So Ashley, welcome to kickstart conversation, can you tell us a little bit more about what you do and who you serve?

Sure, thank you for having me, this is amazing, a great opportunity. So my bread and butter is through my agency, our friend done for you services, it's for people that do not fully understand social media, but no, they need it, they don't have the time or the capacity to do their own social media, but are pretty familiar with it. Or just don't want to have anything to do with it. And maybe they know something, and maybe they don't, but they're like, I know, I need this. I don't like it. I don't I care about it, but I don't want to do it. So that's

that's me, folks, that's me saying

bulk of my business. And then I also have other communities and opportunities for people that are wanting to learn more, that are doing things in house either for themselves, or maybe they have someone on their team that they're wanting to invest in, in their future professional developments. So that way their business can shine better online.

Perfect. So when, when you when when a new client comes to you. And and you're you're starting that conversation around social media presence and and, you know, kind of a game plan of how to use social media, how does that typically that conversation go? Like? I mean, are there certain businesses or certain personality types that are more? Or like better suited to say Facebook versus Instagram or Pinterest? Like, like, how do you kind of have that, like conversation, figure out that roadmap, I guess?

Yeah, so I like to think I take a little bit of a different approach than other marketers, or at least other digital marketers that I've known in my, in my career, the 11 years that I've been doing this, I want to actually talk to the business about their internal processes and what the experience is like for their customers, their target audience or client. I also want to know if they're doing anything in traditional media, and then we kind of shape and form what their goals are for why they even want to be online. Why why their internal or their existing businesses should transition to to the space of the internet. And we kind of look at that one of the obvious or the most frequent goals or reasons is they want more sales or door swings or appointments, more lead generation activities, things like that, to be able to reach out to people. And really, depending on who they're trying to reach and their capacity for content creation, which is something that I also provide and help with and kind of consult or coach or advise on the creation process is that really kind of depends on the platforms that we choose. It ends up being a little late, you know, different for a client that has a physical presence somewhere and can't necessarily expand outside of that locale will versus a service based business or, you know, Coach, author, speaker that can go nationwide or internationally, it's a little bit different of where you want to be, and really laying down or tripling down on that strategy portion of it as to what their end goal is, and where they're at. Exactly. I compare social media marketing and digital marketing a lot to fitness and nutrition. You know, you have your maintenance cycle, you have a cut cycle, you have a growth or gains phase. And depending on where you're at, like you would maybe consume more protein or less fat or however is working for you. The same translates to social media. So if you're in a growth or a gain space, you're going to be pumping out more content and creating more buzz and doing more things than if you were in a maintenance space, so to speak.

So okay, so Wow. Okay, so there are so many golden nuggets. Not one, I think that the number one thing that I really want people to understand and to hear in in that is that the strategic plan comes from your business, not from your social media, social media can is is supporting your street strategic plan, your marketing plan, your growth plan, it's a tool in the toolbox. It is not, you're not a unless you actually work for Facebook or Pinterest or whatever, it's not your business. Right? It is part of your business as part of your strategy. It is not the silver bullet. But it also needs to ebb and flow with your business. So it's part of the strategy that you reach out to people through, it might be social media, it might be networking, it might be whatever. But in this case, social media is the arm that we're talking about. And then you are matching your growth strategy with your social media presence. So again, if you're in growth phase, you're going to pump out more content. If you're maintenance phase, maybe it's just like, you know, making sure that you're on the radar screen. If you're in launch mode, it might be like super hyper focused and a lot of content in a short timeframe, like whatever that looks like. But it's all driven from business strategy. Not I haven't hit three posts today. That fair?

Yes, there is a lot there's a lot of mentality in that social media separate when really, the wild wild west golden days of throwing up a post and somebody making $10,000 is is is gone. Those days were fruitful and amazing. But, but of course, what happens, everybody goes, Hey, this is a great way to make money and they saturated, right. And once there's oversaturation, you have to get a little bit more crafty, a little bit more stand out ish kind of. And the thing is, is that I explained social media platforms as different communities. So I do have a lot of discussions with clients and prospects and people that I talk to students, I don't really know if I should call them students, but we're part of the education piece with for them to is understanding that it is different community. So you have different features on the different platforms, there's different cadence that is accepted or not accepted. And there are different tactics that you can use based upon the platform to help increase your reach on that specific platform. But an example that I provide us, if you went on Facebook, and posted 20 times in a row, something that you feedback that you might get is someone saying, hey, this isn't Twitter stop it. So that's, that's just one like, very high level example of that. But it absolutely needs to be part of what you're doing. And to help supplement and amplify your, your marketing efforts that you're doing offline, this is just a different way to be able to provide the information utilizing the Internet are so many people are spending so much time these days.

Yeah, and so so again, it's it's an arm, it's a tool, so use it, use it as such, pick your platforms based on your ideal client like and where they're going to be hanging out. But also be mindful of the community that you're in. So, you know, you wouldn't walk into a chamber of commerce meeting and have this, you know, with the same kind of conversation, that you walk into a, you know, a baseball stadium and you know, sit down, just start chatting people up, I would say you need to make sure that your message is going out into platforms that that match your message. So if it's a LinkedIn conversation, then like your message is probably a little bit more business and a little bit more networking. versus maybe like the Facebook of the world where it's a little more conversational, and content and kind of fun driven, and that kind of thing. So actually, what are the the rules of engagement, I guess like like how like so when when you sit down you've got the clients and you're talking about their their strategic plans. How important is really for them knowing their ideal client and that avatar and what they're doing and like that 3am question that they are struggling with. It's it's

very, it's for who How do I want to put this it's an it's definitely important because that helps with your messaging. But a lot of that information is sometimes missed. A lot of the entrepreneurs and small business owners that I work with, they know who they work with you But to actually verbalize that it's a process, you know, sit down and think about it like, and really what you do is to two different exercises, who are you currently serving? And then who do you want to serve? And, and figuring out, okay, are they in alignment? And if they're not, how do we get there? What needs to change what needs to shift in the business operations and the business procedures in order to be able to fulfill that ideal clients or that you know, that avatar, customer avatar that you're looking for. And a lot of that is done if especially for those that are brand new, they're like, Well, I kind of wanted to do this, that changes. And I think that's something that's important for people to remember is that there's a lot of change in business, you can start in one place and end up somewhere completely different. But that market research is exceptionally an important. And that's an ongoing process to and taking the time to talk to your current customers or talk to prospects that say no. And just ask them a little bit more about why. And it can be uncomfortable, especially if you're doing this on your own. But if you make it more conversational, and explain to them, Hey, I'm not you already said no, I understand that this isn't something that that you're interested in or want to pursue. But I just like to know, what about it? Didn't you like? And what, uh, what are you? Have you given any thought? Or can you articulate what you are looking for? So I either can cut? I mean, it's another it's another sales strategy in that aspect to do does that what they're wanting, does that align with what you're willing to offer? And if not, who else you know, because it's all about relationships, especially in service based businesses, it's relationships and people and really, the intent of social media is to supplement relationships. You know, I, my kids grew up with it. So it's like their whole social, the, you know, main component of their social circles right outside of school. Whereas I had the luxury of things didn't start launching until I graduated high school. Thank God, aging myself, but I'm where it's like that, we looked at it as cool. This is a great way to stay connected with all my high school friends. After we've graduated, and we all dispersed across the world, our kids are looking at it as, Hey, I found a new friend in California, hey, this friend isn't New Mexico, I met somebody on Canada. And so there's a different dynamic there too. With, with how, with how things are looking, and I think I just went on a tangent.

So hey, I'm all about tangents. But I think I think it's important to understand that that ideal client that like, so the clients that you currently have, you know, like taking a good look at them. And as you grow, and as your business grows, that ideal client is likely going to change, or you're like, you know, that that person that you want to be attracting in, you know, like as, as you get more comfortable. And as you get more confident, you get away from the people that like are needing you, and, and you're going more towards the people that want to work with you. And that's just slightly like, that's a different conversation. So when you want to start attracting the people that are kind of at that next level, or as you know, you kind of like get clear on the people that you want to work with, you need to make sure that your messaging and your social media strategy gets updated. Because otherwise you're just going to keep, you know, calling in, like the people that you know, or you know, you that you're kind of moving away from. And so really keeping on on top of that messaging and understanding that you know, that it is a growth, conversation, it is something that that will change as you get you know, as you as you learn more as your business changes, as you offer different things as you realize that you don't want to do that anymore. So you don't want that kind of client anymore. Because like that, you know, like that's been done. And you know, you're on to the next thing, which is, you know, the purpose of or in my world, the purpose of entrepreneurship is to continually be be creative. But I think, you know, like, as if you use social media as the tool that it should be, it's in your toolkit, you're constantly kind of it's a dynamic conversation. You're constantly you know, kind of tweaking and changing and testing and you know, trying new things, but in I think you know, the glory days, you know, we're fine. But you know, in this day and age, social media is not going to fix your business and 12.2 seconds. Right? Like, it's always a long game conversation isn't not?

Yeah. And yes, but it's also it's people who, there's a couple different things here. People who are like, wow, they're an overnight sensation, that overnight sensation took seven years of overnights, yeah, average of consistency. Not constantly but consistently working and networking and doing things offline that people don't necessarily see online. And it that's that, I think, is the key component is, and that's really part of the content strategy is how much is informational and educational, how much is entertainment, and how much is sales. And having a good mix and understanding, it's a great way to do market research to as as you had mentioned in in a few moments ago, depending on the clientele that you want to work with, there are, especially if you're getting into high ticket for this is for our service provider funds that are listening to this, you know, you're charging 1020 $30,000 for services, and you're creating offers and things like that, not a lot of those people are willing to really deal on social media, they might be interested in you and then they might see, you know, or, or somehow you are able to get their attention. And that's phenomenal. That's great. But that's where social media really becomes more of a great market research tool to help you leverage with those relationships. And example is there is a developer that I work with, he actually programmed an all in one marketing software and bundled it all up. And it's freaking phenomenal. But by being Facebook friends with him, because that's his most active platform, I was able to see that he is a lover of Oreos. So he sends business my way or I am like, you know what, this is frickin amazing, just as a thank you, I now know, to send Oreos, you know, and it's so it's little touches like that, where you can leverage social media or if you if your turn targeting super intelligent scientists, and things like that. And you can find them on LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram connect with them, you get more of a deeper insight. Because LinkedIn, as you alluded to, is more of a professional setting. I mean, tick tock dances on there. But on Facebook, people are sharing, you know, pets and family and things. So you can really understand more about people, and what exactly is important to them. So that's, that's another great tool to or a great use for for social media connections and being online. There's a lot of times when I am I look at social media content way different than when I was just a personal user, where personal you're just you know, you're scrolling through, and they're having fun and that kind of thing. Whereas I'm looking at it as was more with a different analytical eye of okay, what's competition doing? What's the offer? How does this work? What are they structuring, it really kind of gives them insight into what other people are doing and what has been successful. So there's some replication that can be done, or I need to learn how to do that. So direction and clarity is awesome. But it's also taking a look and seeing like, what are people talking about? What is top of mind for this particular community. So it's a little bit different world of a world when you put on the marketer, business owner, lasses and spend time on social media and because I also know a lot of entrepreneurs that are like social media is just a waste of time and never on there. And that may be true, they could be at a very busy growth phase, and not have time for it. But it's still a worthy scroll to take a look and see what conversations are happening, what problems you might be able to solve. What solutions you could do and what kind of different offers you can craft for people.

Yeah, and I love that, that you know that that viewpoint of start with your strategy. First, start with your business plan first, and then figure out which like, you know, whether Social Media layers on and if it does, then figure out that like, you know what platform layer is on and then you can figure out your content plan and so on. But don't start with I need to post three days a week and expect that that's going to hit your bottom line. Because it's a disconnect. You haven't actually kind of built it all together. And and I think that that's, you know, people get Get a little, a little too fixated on, you know, like, I have to be out there and my name has to be out there. But if your name is out there, and nobody can do anything to connect with you, or the offer isn't right, or like there's, you know, like having that plan behind whatever you're communicating about from a business point of view. Like, that's the key, I think.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sorry.

No, no, and the, you know, social media is the introduction to you, right? It's not very, very, not very often, unless it's really super low ticket, are you like conducting sales, straight off of social media, for service providers, right, like your offers of your signature offer, say of like, you know, 997, you might get people to go to sign up to your website, you know, but chances are good, they're not, you know, they're not just clicking and buying something for $1,000, as those days are just, you know, not not really, you know, those those days are done. But they will look for you, and they will start to get to know you. So it is still a way to build the relationship, but it's a long game conversation like you like, and I think the one thing that, you know, I want to go back to that you said was consistency, you need to be consistent. It's all about consistency in social media, it's all about the consistency game, which is why it is so important to make sure that you're picking the lane that lights you up. Right that you have fun with that you you know that you you know, like you, you're on there all the time anyways, or, you know, like, if you are not doing tick tock, and you're not like you know, it's just not your gig, then chances are good that anyone that you are attracting to yourself on Tik Tok may not be a fit for your business. Is that Is that fair? Ashley, you can disagree with me?

No couple things quality over quantity, always quality over quantity. So if that means that you're posting now, now with reason, you can't post every six months and expect things to, like the algorithms aren't gonna like you at that point. So there's some consistency, you know, constantly. But if that's once a month, if that's once a week, if that's once, you know, it's it depends on the platform to with that, but I love that you mentioned fun, because one of the most controversial pieces of advice that I have for people is when like, what social media platforms do I need to be on, but there are a solopreneur, or they're an intrapreneur, for their business, or for the employer. And the question that I asked them is, where do you go, when you are going to when you want to be on social media, where does your finger autopilot on your phone, what platform and they'll say Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, wherever, and I'll say start there. And they're kind of like, well, my audience isn't on there on like, your audience is on there. But if you're spending your personal time on that platform, not only are you going to have a better understanding of the features, you're going to be more comfortable. So that's going to remove a lot of stress and intimidation and pressure, and you're actually going to show up. And that's the biggest part about anything, again, online or offline is you got to show up. I think that there's a lot of assumptions assumption that you can just go online and be viral and make all of this money when it's like, no, there's a lot of work behind the scenes. You know, and, and I, so I love the fact that you brought in the fun element, because that that is a big part of it. And once you have that down, then we can look at other platforms, and how much time and attention you have the capacity hold. And really one of the tricks with that is, again, more strategy, more planning, which I'm sure a lot of chaos tolerant people are like, Oh my gosh, I don't want to do that. Call me No, seriously. Oh, it's one of those where it's, it's, you have all that planning in place, you can look at it and go, Okay, does this post make sense for my business goals? Sample years ago, there was nonprofit who they were due, they've made a post, they made a post. So the local community, and they posted a dog and a photo of spaghetti. That was and it was kind of like, there was a lot more on what, of course, I'm like, What the heck is this? And so I took I dug a little bit deeper, but a step that most people aren't going to take mind. Yeah. And ended up being a nonprofit. They were doing a spaghetti feed fundraiser and it's Like none of that information was shared, this isn't relevant to what you're known for, we're what your brand is known for. And so, you know, it's widely known that faces, especially your face, if you're if you're the business, or teams, your team's faces, things like that are going to outperform on social media. People interact with them more the algorithms, like those kinds of pictures, things like that your biggest competition is going to be a puppy. And so there's a lot there was a time when people were just posting pictures of puppies, because it got them more views, not the best strategy. And you also mentioned, you know, low ticket offers and things like that, or free freebies. And you have to understand too, that that is a quantity strategy, not a quality strategy. Ooh. Yeah, so you could get 1000 new leads. But if one, you know, and 1% might be great for a conversion. But 1% would be great for a conversion, because it's a know like, and trust factor, too. So you can it's kind of another analogy I read online a few months ago, where it's like, you could have a $10 million business and bring home $100,000. Or you could run a $200,000 business and bring home $100,000 Which one? Which one do you want to do? And there isn't a wrong answer? Because that's your choice. There's no judgment, there's no, there's nothing. But it's, it's from a from a work horse kind of view, it's there's a lot more stuff going on with the $10 million business to bring home the same amount that a $200,000 business, and you're bringing in the same amount. So that's kind of that's kind of the quick part of a question, too,

which is why I like to layer in a quiz, right? So you know, like you can, you can put your, you know, put out the social media and so on and then filter, you know, have that filter of your quiz so that you're making sure that your ideal client is coming through and that you're weeding out the tire kickers and the freebie seekers. Which is why I always suggest putting the quiz like just underneath all your marketing strategies, and everything goes through that. Because and I've said this before, I would much rather be in a room of 100 ideal clients, potential ideal clients, and close 90 of them, then be in a stadium full of 10,000 people trying to find the 100 people to maybe close, like, by the time I find the 100 people I'm too tired to close. Like, I mean, like, like, it's the lights are off, we gotta go. Like, I mean, like we're at a time. So you know, like, give me the the 100 in a room versus the 10,000 in a stadium. You know, as you know, to to your quality over quantity, conversation. But you know, having that quiz as a buffer from you know, your marketing to your, your calendar, and your your sales conversations can help. So, so actually, like, kind of one of the things that I think that new entrepreneurs in particular, kind of, they go out of the gate, and they think that they have to get on social media, or they have to start marketing immediately. Because any new clients, right, they like now it's like a desperation almost. I think that and I'd love your your opinion on taking a breath and making sure you have the strategy in place and the business plan that you can then pick the marketing strategy that works for you, and then pick the cadence and all of that. Is that Is that fair?

Yeah. So some some important things that people need to know. And again, the ways of the internet, right, is that it can take 90 to 120 days, from your, from when you publish that content for search engines and social media platforms, which are turning into many search engines to actually pick you up. So during those first time, for those first three to four months, a lot of people get really frustrated, because they're like it's not working. You have to give them a little bit at a time. Yeah. The other thing that I found too, is psychologically, a lot of people just want to do something to help with their anxiety or stress, the pressure or to feel unstuck. They just want to do something. And so in that aspect of it, what I would encourage people to do is to get their Google business profile. So this is formally Google My Business. Essentially, what it is, is it's your online listing on Google is what that is start there. Google is still the number one search engine in the world. YouTube is the second

and Google owns YouTube. Yeah, Google owns YouTube. So yeah.

You're not gonna go wrong. So if you're starting a new business, it's it's half social, it's half search and Jenny, you know, that kind of thing. Also, being get a profile up, start with your online listings there. First, it's going to ask you high level information that you've probably already know, if you've created a business plan. Or if you are able to, you know, write on the fly, and you know what you're doing, you can type it in with your description of who you serve, what you do, what your offers are, things like that. And that's going to start the wheels going, at least on the search engines. Google business profile is fantastic for local SEO, or search engine ranking. It's also a free option to help you with that search engine optimization. And it's a low maintenance gateway to it. So starting to build those habits. I know I'm talking about all kinds of boring stuff, planning habits, strategy,

you know, here's the thing, folks like the like, you're, you're building a house? Yeah, like your, your bill, or maybe you're building the Empire State Building, like, you know, you're building an empire, right? You got to have the foundation, because without the foundation, it's all gonna fall like it's a house of cards. So you know, like, don't necessarily think that. And I'm not trying to scare anybody off, but like that first, like three months of your business should actually like you should be thinking, What is my ideal client? What is the Avatar? What is my plan? How does my my growth plan my business plan actually work with my now marketing plan? And how then layer on social media and so on, like, you know, get your Google, Google My Business up and running, you know, like, get those things going first? Because it's going back and trying to do that after the fact is, like, is guerrilla warfare? Like? I mean, it's hard. It's, it's hard to go back and try to do all that, right? Well, it's,

yeah, it's a lot of updating. But I think the best part of it is with the habit building is that it's Google business profile, post once every six days, that's once a week, pick one day a week that you're going to do admin or one day a week that you're going to do this and be like, Oh, I'm posting it's going out. And that's what's great about it. The other part of what you're talking about, too, is when you're first starting a business, at least for me, I was all about, okay, I need some frickin sales. And, ironically, my social media wasn't. In my focus, I was trying to figure out bank account information and business structure was I an LLC was I as well, proprietor was, what's an S corp? What do I need to do for taxes, there's a lots of different, there's lots of different learnings. And some people depending on where they're at, in their journey can skip a lot of that because they know it, but there's still the doing part. So you're still doing all of this. And then once you sell, you have to deliver on those promises. And it's really easy for social media to, you know, kind of fall on the wayside until you realize, oh, I should probably do. But, you know, that's, that's gonna get people started in a very low pressure way. That's also going to benefit them, where they don't feel like I think that that's what I really want to stress to is anyone who goes online and Google's best days and times to post on LinkedIn, or best content to put on Facebook, or how many posts should I do a week? Because that's still the number one question that I get from people. You're going to figure all of that out, those are guidelines, or a benchmark of where to start. And then the people, your target audience, whether your followers, your connections, they're going to tell you through the analytics when you're posting and testing things, how often to post, what to post, and what time of day, and what day of the week, they're going to tell you that. Now, there are a lot of businesses out there where it's kind of like, yeah, Monday through Friday, boom, where it kind of it is part of the platform to most people aren't spending their time on LinkedIn on the weekends. Most people aren't spending their time on YouTube during week in comparison, right? It seems like everybody's spending time on tick tock all the time, all

the time. All the time. I know that I just said over tick tock but like, you know, tick tock is a whole like, that's the whole thing. That's your thing. I love it. I love it for you. As long as it's again, like I actually don't actually don't have a favorite social media platform, I will use the ones that are best for my business as a as a part of the tool in like in the toolkit, right? So if that, you know, turns out to be tic toc is what I should be doing then I'd look into that. You know, like like that. That's fine. But if it's something that you go and look at and you think Oh dear God, like I would rather like tear my hair out and do this all the time, then don't do it. Like don't get yourself into a situation where you're you're trying to, to, you know, oh, like no, somebody told me that I needed to do this way. That's not That's not the way to grow your business because it's going to come through that you don't like what you're doing energetically it's going to come through if you're not having fun people are going to know.

Absolutely, and again, comes back to strategy. So an example is because there's a lot of digital creators and personal brands that are showing up on on these platforms. And during video. I forget the hotel, and I'm a little embarrassed about that. But they did have, they had hilariously funny and amazing Tik Tok content during the COVID during COVID, their ads were all about, you know, the staff being there and just being bored because no one was traveling like it was it was just on point. But it comes back down to what exactly are you wanting to do? And why do you want to be on there other than everybody's talking online about tick tock, because there's, I can look at a piece of content. There's one gentleman that my husband follows He repurpose is, is tic TOCs on the Facebook rules. So that's how my husband sees these short form videos. And he watches them and and he sings the song to change the words and stuff is really clever. But that person's strategy, because I I know how this work, I works, I can assume he's looking at building followers, he's working on making sure that if something happens to tick tock that he has another place for people to go, because that's more of an influence of strategy. So those kinds of people are going to be looking for merch, swag, brand deals, affiliates, that's how they're going to make their money. So then being entertaining on social media, is how is how those behind the scenes deals happen, versus someone who is going on going on and being more educational, or giving little nuggets and pieces of information to enter into a different kind of lead generation funnel or a different sales cycle for those people. So that's what's the end goal. And then my job is to come in and to help figure out what that looks like, use the resources that are available, because there are a lot and people get overwhelmed. And they get overwhelmed by by blog articles from marketing experts in marketing companies saying you need to post three to four times on Facebook, one to three times you need to post one to 10 stories every day on Instagram, plus, you need to have three to five feed posts, and you need to do two to three reels. And that's just one platform. And then you need to be on YouTube once a week. And then you need to be on LinkedIn once a day. And it's enough for anybody to go, I don't want to do it. So do what you're gonna do test it thoroughly. And if you're finding that that's not where you need to be, then it's kind of like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Try the next bed. Yep, the next porridge. You know, that kind of thing? And I think that's part of partially the most frustrating part for people is is it? Good social media, good digital marketing? It actually does take time.

And I'm adjusting. Yeah, no, I'm testing and money it does. And it's fun. And if it's organic, then it takes longer. And one thing that I just I want to caution people with is Don't Don't try to beat the algorithm. The algorithm changes daily, I think you're gonna be today maybe once like, maybe you beat it like don't, that's not a strategy meeting the algorithm is not a strategy. So you know, like, if you are solid in your, in your, your growth plan or your business plan, your marketing strategy, and having your social media help you as you're growing out your business, that's where you're going to actually monetize and you're going to be doing you're going to see the return on investment that you want to see so, So Ashley, thank you so much for for being here today. This was a lot of fun. How can people connect with you and find you if they want to work with you? Which I totally suggest.

Well, thank you. So I am everywhere. A little bit. It's part of my job though, you know, I It's part of my job. So to find or follow the agency. They can look pretty much on most platforms at social jargon. That's SOC i l Jr. Our g n intentional typo if they're looking to connect with me on a personal level most people can find me with at Ashley Smith IRL I'm most active on Instagram to be fair.

Excellent. And we'll have those that all in the show notes. So thank you so much Ashley. If there's one thing that you can leave leave the the entrepreneurs that are listening here with what would it be?

Social media is supposed to be social.