In this episode of Mind Your Wedding Business, Kevin Dennis sits down with Nina Addeo, founder of I Do Wedding Marketing, to discuss how wedding professionals can stop treating social media like a never-ending marketing task and start using it as a strategic business system that consistently generates inquiries and bookings.

Nina shares how she got her start in wedding marketing and explains why so many wedding pros feel overwhelmed by social media. She breaks down practical strategies for building sustainable content systems, staying consistent without burning out, and creating content that attracts the right clients instead of simply chasing viral views.

The conversation also explores content organization, SEO for Instagram, analytics, vendor collaboration, personal branding, batching content, and why social media should support every stage of the client journey—from discovery to referrals long after the wedding day.

If you've ever struggled to stay consistent on social media, wondered how to turn your content into real business results, or felt overwhelmed by the pressure to constantly create, this episode is packed with actionable strategies you can implement right away.

Nina Addeo is the founder of I Do Wedding Marketing, a social media and marketing company dedicated to helping wedding professionals turn their online presence into a consistent source of inquiries and bookings. With a background in digital marketing and a deep focus on the wedding industry, Nina is known for her practical, no-fluff approach to content that prioritizes clarity, strategy, and results. She is also the host of the I Do Wedding Marketing Podcast, where she shares actionable insights to help wedding pros grow sustainable, profitable businesses.

Highlights:

• Why social media should function as a business system, not just a marketing task

• Creating a sustainable content strategy without burning out

• How consistency helps generate more inquiries and bookings

• Using SEO, location tags, and vendor collaboration to expand your reach

• Organizing your content for easier planning and scheduling

• Why personality-driven content builds stronger client connections

• Understanding the analytics that actually matter

• Turning social media into a long-term referral and relationship-building tool

Connect with Nina:

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Connect with Kevin:

Wedding IQ

Fantasy Sound

Instagram

YouTube

TikTok

LinkedIn

All right, folks, welcome to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. I'm here with Nina Addeo she's with I Do Wedding Marketing, and we're going to be talking about social media as an operational system, not a marketing task. but before we do, Nina, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today?

Yeah, Kevin, thanks so much for having me. You know, when I went to school, when I went to college, social media was not even something businesses were doing yet. As a matter of fact, just college students could unlock Facebook with a college email address. was like gate kept. was a wild time. So as I, you know, I went to school for speech communications and rhetorical studies, but was having, you know, problem finding my footing. But I had this viral America's Next Top Model blog.

Of course.

I remember that.

And as social media became a thing, that's what I was putting on my resume to try and get a social media gig. And the first one I resonated with was social media for a group of wedding venues. So was a hospitality group, but back then you didn't just do social media. So I was the admin assistant and marketing manager. And that meant I got to learn the backend of the wedding industry. I'm doing the linen order.

Hehehehe

which is probably a good thing.

Yes, exactly. I'm doing the bridal showcases, the vendor lists, the leads lists. So I'm learning and I'm seeing the inquiries come in. And the most important part was I got to take the minutes for the sales meetings. And so I was using all this information to make their social media better and their social media or advertising budget. There was none. It was my salary. So anything had to be organic.

Mmm.

So I started testing ideas and doing things to see how I could make social media work. Fell in love with it and decided to do it, that the formula I was doing could be replicated. So I started, I do wedding marketing. So now I do it for wedding professionals of all categories worldwide.

We have a social media membership now for those who can't outsource it yet. This way they get the handholding. And it's still as fun as it was before I was married. Because that's what I said to the girls who worked at the venue. It's like, is this still fun when you're married? And they all said no. But weddings are still fun for me. And I think that's kind of how you know that you're in it, right? When it's still fun.

Mm-hmm.

No

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah,

I'm a big believer. If it's not fun, you shouldn't be doing it. So yeah. Well, that's a great story. All right. So we're going to jump in. And again, the topic social media as an operational system, not a marketing task. So I'm really excited to kind of get going on that. But Nina, before we kind of jump into the topic, can you tell us about like who you help and what you focus on when it comes to social media for wedding pros?

Yeah, so my big belief, and this is what separates me from when you just work maybe with a local marketing agency who works with all types of brands, e-commerce brands, restaurants, et cetera, is that my goal isn't just on going viral, right? Because if a post gets 200 views and three leads and one that turns into a booking, that's a successful post for my clients. And very often, those viral posts

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

aren't reaching the target audience. So I work with wedding professionals who really want to focus on conversion. so, that's reaching people with your social media who are actually gonna or have the potential to convert to a client.

Mmm.

Yeah, makes sense. All right. So you described social media as an operational system, not just a marketing task. What do you mean by that?

It has to be a part of your business, just like you have a website, just like you have invoicing and your processes set up, social media, even if you hate it, right? And I'm a big believer of making it something you don't hate anymore, but social. But you know what? We hate doing our taxes and we still do it. We hate doing the accounting work and we still do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So unfortunately, we have to find a way to make social media something we can tolerate doing and finding a cadence for it that can exist with your current workflow.

Yeah. one thing I guess is could be stress. So why do so many wedding pros approach social media in a way that creates stress instead of results?

think a social media by nature has become very stressful as it is. and I think we're starting to realize these habits we've formed maybe aren't necessarily always serving us where you're being constantly fed, you know, ads or things you don't want to see, or you look up a news article once and now it won't stop popping up in your algorithm. But I really implore people to consider

how social media can be a fun place and taking the time to mark, don't show this to me or to search things you know you wanna see. And this is an important one, but to hide people who don't make you feel good, right? Social media becomes a bad place for some because we get competitive. We see what other people are doing because we're seeing their highlight reel and it can get us in our feels. I've had it where I'm scrolling and all of a sudden I don't feel good.

Hmm.

⁓

and I don't know why, and I have to stop and think about what did I see that made me feel bad? so,

⁓ that's smart to hide that. Yeah. Because I feel

like there's people out there that'll get like upset and frustrated when they start seeing like their competitor that they're not really fond of, but they're out there doing a bunch of work and they're like home twiddling their thumbs that weekend, you know? So.

Yeah. And for all

you know, they were at their cousin's weddings and got some footage or this is old footage. But what I try to do is I'll just ⁓ I'll mute them so you don't have to unfollow them if you're afraid of how that would look. Just mute it. And then maybe once a month I go in, check on them, do a few likes so they see that I'm supportive and whatnot. They don't know I'm salty. But, know, it's kind of protecting your mindset or just

Yeah.

Yeah

use a scheduling platform and don't scroll on the app as much. But doing these things that you have to do to protect your space because it's not worth missing out on the business you could get from it and the growth you could have. Your business is your baby, right? So what are we willing to overlook mindset wise so our baby can grow?

Hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, you mentioned social media should be fun, you know, little earlier. so is this a good way to let your personality, let your brand, all that kind of stuff come shining through?

absolutely. Cause really, I mean, I was nervous before starting this podcast, right? And then you come on and I see Funko Pops, i see ⁓ Mickey and Minnie, some Stormtroopers and a rainbow colored bookshelf. So immediately I'm at ease. Immediately, you know, now maybe later when I sign off, if I see something about the Disney parks, maybe I'll think of Kevin and I want to send it to Kevin, know? So I'm, you know, it's always...

Mm-hmm.

Hehehehehe

Yes.

There you go.

a of an eye roll when I share it, but I'm a big professional wrestling fan. And so I like to work it in to my stories because you know what? They're going to find out. They're going to find out. They're going to see it, whether it's in the background or something, or I have a wrestling shirt on. But what happens instead is whenever wrestling comes into someone's town, they're always letting me know about it.

Mmm.

They see something wrestling related. They're sending me a message to ask what I think of it. So letting your personality show, and it doesn't even have to be something as personal as that, but just, know, do you drink? And this is cliche. People say people don't care about what you drink, but it shows a bit of you, right? If it's the, you're a diet coke girlie, a matcha, a coffee drinker, just whatever it is, allowing pieces of yourself to show. Cause that's pieces of themselves.

Mm-hmm.

your audience can see.

Well, is it way to connect, probably a way to connect with people as well? Yeah.

Absolutely, I mean, when

I used to work at the venue getting the leads, the only thing I liked about leads from the knot is that you could see the profile picture they picked. And so whenever I saw a Disney engagement photo, I was like, all right, I got a genuine response. can work into that. But also, Kevin, what I think is important to remember is that many couples haven't, you know, shopped or planned a wedding before.

And then it's like when you're shopping for a car for the first time, you don't know how the sales person is going to treat you. You don't know if they're going to laugh you out of the building because they're like, you think you can afford this? You know, it's a vulnerable place to be in. So the more we can make people comfortable or show them like, hey, we're just like you, you can talk to me about my books and about my surface.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. I once had a bride who was a Golden State Warriors cheerleader hire me to work her wedding because she went on my Instagram and saw that I liked basketball because I was a Sacramento Kings season ticket holder. And so even though it wasn't the same team, we had a connection over basketball. I mean, was and I didn't know this and literally until we did the final meeting. You know? Yeah. Yeah.

Wow, that is feedback.

Yeah, but it was very I was like wow you just you never know how that connection is going to come in so Yeah All right. So what's the difference between posting randomly and having an actual social media? Like system going on

Absolutely.

i think the first end is for your own sanity, right? Relieving that stress, instead of having that stress several times a week, let's just designate it to once a month or twice a month where you schedule it out and know things you're taking care of. The only things I say to leave random or when you're at an actual wedding and you're either doing stories or you're doing the recap the next day.

Mm-hmm.

those are really important to get timely. But if you're scheduling out reels and what we call evergreen content, which is essentially content that doesn't expire, that I recommend posting in advance. And it doesn't have to be seven days a week. If you can just start with once or twice a week, that's enough to let people know that you exist and that you're in business.

Hmm.

Now the reason we want to do more than that is because we're competing with so much stuff on social media, especially if you're not running ads. know, what I do is all organic social media. So the more we post, the better our odds are. But if you don't have the time to increase those odds, twice a week is enough to start getting leads and action from it. Especially,

Yeah.

Subtraction, yeah, makes sense.

I do want to put the caveat that if you're posting less, building in organic engagement time really helps with that. And by organic engagement, some things I'll do is, let's say there's a venue you want to be working at more, maybe seeing who recently followed that venue, who recently checked in at that venue and interacting with them and reminding people that you exist. So going on to the platform and just

Starting up some genuine comments. i know if I go in to a client's local area and I look up their romantic restaurants, I'll go into the geo tag and see who checked in there recently. And I will find proposals and engagements or if you go to a park in your area. And then this way you just leave a comment saying, know, congratulations on your engagement. He picked a perfect location. And you don't have to...

wow.

Spam them beyond that. If your profile's optimized, then they already know. If it says Kevin photography, then they know you're a photographer. If it says DJ, so you don't have to go, the way, I see you're engaged and I'm a DJ. They know what you do by your optimized profile. Your commenting just helps alert them and remind them that you exist.

Yeah, makes sense. All right, so how should wedding pros, Nina, think about social media as part of the overall client journey?

It is, it's several parts of the journey, right? Cause first is part of the discovery process. And very often, you know, for the wedding venues I work with or any of the clients after a couple books, they are following that venue. So they're a part of the journey now you're with them for planning. So following those couples, I think it's really great to follow your couples even for after the wedding, stay following because you want to be nurturing.

that relationship. So during the engagement, you're following them, you're a part of their journey, you're a part of their team. But then even afterwards, there's a process there of, you know, tagging them in the photos, inviting them as a collaborator, which is a relatively newer feature to Instagram. But when you invite the couple to that post, that first post about them,

It gets such traction and such engagement and now you've introduced yourself or really you've shown the algorithm that all of their friends interacted with your content. Now your content is more likely to get fed to all of their friends. So it starts this really great funnel that I don't think should be ignored. So building that into your systems that I'm going to follow my couple after they book.

I'm gonna invite them as a collaborator when I first post their wedding. I'm gonna keep in touch with them through social media and maybe I'm gonna tag an anniversary post for the first year or whatever you decide your system is. That keeps what I consider, without even knowing you, right? Your best referral source is probably your past couples. So building that into your operational system.

Okay.

just helps keep that relationship alive. Because what's going to happen is they're going to buy a house. They're going to maybe have kids, or maybe they get a new pet they're sharing about. And you get to then be reminded and engage with them. So then when their friend gets engaged, you're top of mind. They haven't forgotten about you. They're going, oh, yeah, Kevin, I just saw him on my feed the other day. He commented on our Disney trip. You've got to reach out to him. So that's why I like building it as

Yeah.

part of the process and that could just be on your intake form you ask for their handles.

Wow. Yeah, no, that makes sense. and then it's probably a good on the wedding day because then you could probably get a lot of you know, see what their friends and family are doing on their socials or tagging them with and there might be some content in there for you, you know, and then maybe even you there's someone at the wedding that might be getting married or you know, you never know.

Absolutely, and that so often happens. I mean, back in the day, that's used to, you used to have to like, you'd feel like a stalker looking for content where we didn't have things systemized well. So I would be checking in at the venue, but what posted this weekend and trying to get, you know, the credits to post it and everything. But I'm not above that. That's the best way to kind of get, get some, get some good content.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's like you said, organic and you know, like, yeah, it's not you making it up.

all right, Nina, what are the biggest inefficiencies you see in how wedding pros manage their content?

not having it organized within their drive. I have some or whatever filing system you use, right? So when a client even goes to work with whether it's a virtual assistant, a social media manager, even maybe a friend's helping you or maybe you're doing it yourself. But if you have things, if your galleries aren't organized, if you don't have the vendor credit sheet with the gallery, these things are missing, it's going to make it.

⁓ okay.

Mmm.

that much more strenuous when you go to sit down and do it. So having a system for when you get a new gallery of where you're filing it, usually I just like to put the venue name, the couple's name, the date. That's enough at a glance for me to see. Sometimes when the holidays come, you wanna pull that holiday content. So if I see December weddings, I know to kind of look there. And you always wanna have the couple's name. So.

If I'm accessing it and I don't know their names, then I'll know and can make it personal. And you want to know, I like having the venue name at a glance because you want to be just showing diversity in your feed. So you're showing different places. So obviously this should be if you're not a venue. I'm a venue, then I want to see the photographer. And I include that in the folder name too. And then within the folder will be the images, whether you just put everything or you culled them and then having the vendor credit sheet.

Yeah.

That is really important. So this way anyone can step in and schedule content with tags with that in there. And that's really helpful because your posts aren't going to do as well without that information, not to mention it's considered industry etiquette to include it.

Hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah, it just makes sense. It's the right way to do it because I know there's nothing more frustrating as a wedding professional when you see someone post something and it's like, know, like my main company does chandeliers and drapery and you know, there's, you know, our draperies in the background or our chandeliers are hanging in the photo and they don't credit us. It just, yeah, there's nothing more frustrating than that.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And

I have to say from the social media manager perspective, sometimes it's just because they're not giving me that information. So I say that to say, don't hesitate to say, you know, can you add me to this or add me to your files for this? you know, or here are the tags for it. I have them. see that you don't. Because like, if I can get because I try to chase them, you know, but sometimes they just people are busy. Right. That's why they're outsourcing the social media.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You

know, so I work with what I can, but don't hesitate to reach out and give them the information.

That's

good advice, because maybe it wasn't being vindictive. was just... Yeah. All right, So how can social media support inquiries and bookings without requiring someone to be online 24-7?

Exactly! It's not something you just don't have

Yeah, so you want to make sure each post you do is optimized to work without you. So we want when that post goes live, it's going to take a life of its own and it needs some things to make that happen beyond just one being a good post, right? A good post. And that means something, you know, visually pleasing or it has some sort of engaging hook or trending audio or concept, et cetera. But even beyond that.

First, you want to make sure you put in the location tag, and that can either be the venue itself, the city, the county. Sometimes I change it up because those are all searchable. When I was getting married, I was always looking at the venue's location tag to see what other people were posting at the venue. Because I know the venue is going to post their best photos, right? Everybody else is going to post maybe the real photo. So couples are looking at that.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

and it flags to the algorithm where you're working. So that's the first helpful element. The second one is within your caption itself. So SEO is now something that exists within your social media posts. And so the more you can work in what you do and where you do it fluidly into your content, the more Instagram knows that.

yeah.

So that means if you're putting that you're a Tampa wedding planner, as people start searching Tampa weddings, your content is more likely to come up either suggested to them on the explore page and so forth. And then lastly, you want those tags because when that post goes live, everybody tagged is going to get a notification if they're tagged in the caption and they're going to get a message.

Yeah, thanks.

if they're tagged where you actually hit the little person icon and tag them. And that gets people interacting with your content right away. Very often if I'm tagged in something, I'm gonna share it. So then Instagram sees, wow, this was posted and look right away four people shared it. That means, you know, this is a good post. And the more engagement that happens, as soon as you hit live, the more, or publish rather, the more...

Instagram is going to see or whatever social media platform this is universal that this is a juicy post. This is a good post. So by putting those tags and if in addition to vendor tags, I like to tag if my client advertises with a local magazine or directory, I'll tag them if they belong to a chamber of commerce, any sort of partner that you have or even some.

Hmm.

Mm.

my accounts they have two accounts they may have a personal account to and they like to cross post or they do wedding planning and DJ services so sometimes we'll cross post to to help with that engagement so this means without you babysitting the post when it goes live there are things working to get the post to get some action without you having to be present behind it

Hmm.

Yeah, that's good because it'd be really hard if you had to be present the whole time. So that would be really stressful. all right, you mentioned, a little bit ago, like twice a week should be, you should be posting at least twice a week. So what role does consistency really play and what does consistency actually look

Exactly, Yeah. ⁓

Yeah, so the idea, unfortunately, and this, believe in this with my makeup and I believe in it with social media, more is more. unfortunately, right? But look, sometimes when I'm on the go, it's just gonna be a little concealer and that's it. And so sometimes when you're on the go, that's why I say it's okay if you can only do twice a week. You have to figure out what you can do first. Look, if you can do seven times a week,

Yeah.

Yeah.

do it because that increases your chances, especially if it's good content where you have time to put in all those elements we discussed. So more is more, but you don't want to risk burning out and then you post for a week straight and then there's crickets for the rest of the month. Because what we want to make sure is that whenever somebody logs on,

makes sense.

you know, and whenever they're looking that ideally you come up on their feed and that you're suggested. I had somebody say to me once like, God, feels like whenever I log in, you posted something else. And as annoying as that may be for some, it also is like, all right, good. You know, I want people to see me. So imagine if people were seeing you all the time over somebody else. But I think what's also important is

couples really do use social media as a form of shopping. mean, even look how wedding content creation is its own category now. It's because that's how important social media and this type of content is to couples. So they want to know how you're going to post their wedding. And that doesn't mean you have to create these posts because they are couples who

don't want you making memes out of them, right? And don't want to be reals. So whatever is authentic to you, that will translate to your ideal couple and what you're posting and how you're posting and staying consistent is what's going to help you consistently show up in the algorithm on social media, whether you're using Instagram, whether you're using TikTok, Facebook, even, you know, those are all big ones right now.

So really it must come down to consistency is key.

Yes, and that is

you decide what consistency is for you.

Is that

make sense? Okay. All right. So what type of content tends to move potential clients closer to bookings?

So what I see from working with clients worldwide and reviewing their analytics is that Reels bring in new people, but it's the portfolio content, those feed posts and those carousel posts, that's what I feel converts them. That's what gets them to the website. So Reels bring in new people. they go, oh, who's this? oh, this is funny. oh, let me check them out.

Hmm.

Hmm.

And then when they get to actually see your work and start to visualize their day, that's what's going to get the conversion. Cause the most important analytic for me, and this is what separates me from other, you know, broader marketing agency is it's not just the views, right? Because whenever we post something, the 80 % of the views are going to be the vendors who are, who are tagged in it. Right? So I'm really focused on the 20 % who I want to click.

Yeah.

to your website, I want them in your funnel. So rather than just focusing on the views, I'm focusing on your website taps and your link taps. So when you go to your dashboard, I use Instagram as the example for everything, just cause it's the most universal of the platform. So when you go into your Instagram and you click your professional dashboard, you'll be able to scroll down and see your website taps. And that's the number to focus on each month, cause that's the number you want to grow.

And that's what we'll show you. What is leading people to your website, which is the point of this all. And it's also the hardest thing to do because you know what a zombie scroll is like. So not only are we stopping their scroll for them to go to our profile, then we want them to go to our profile for to our website. So you have to really show people what they want to make that happen.

I'm going say, yeah, that's the ultimate goal, right?

Yeah.

That's a lot of hurdles to get into. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, yes, it is. So don't be

discouraged if it's a low number. It's a low number by design. Instagram does not want them to leave Instagram. So if you're starting at 12, that's a fine number because look, those are warm clicks. Like somebody who's stopping all this to go to your website, they have a level of interest. So work with that number even if it's not huge.

Yeah, that's a point.

Mm-hmm.

it makes well it makes a whole lot of sense so all right how can someone create content more strategically instead of like constantly scrambling for ideas

Yeah,

I find one of my, you know, hacks and you don't have to use AI for this, but you could. i put captions on my zoom calls and it creates a transcript when it's done. So it's great because I have captions and we can read, you know, what we're saying. And then I get the transcript after put that into chat, put that into Claude, whatever you use and say, what were some of the questions they had? What here would other be educational for other couples?

What are people asking you that they don't understand? Because remember, it's vulnerable. When you don't know if you can afford something, you don't know anything about this, maybe you're the first vendor they've even spoken to, what would you rather they already knew before the call? Because it's going to make your life easier too, if you could get some of these out. And then also, if you look on Reddit threads, what questions are couples asking about pricing?

Wow.

about your service, about your area, even if the questions weren't for you. So let's say you're building this up and you don't have a bunch of sales calls. Put that Reddit thread into claude or chat and say like, what can we pull here for content? are people, summarize what people who want to know most here and start with that. Cause the more you can answer their questions, the more you can be the person they trust even before.

Mm-hmm.

they get on the call, because we're really kind of grooming them even before they're ready to book. Even before they're engaged as somebody starts kind of planning, thinking it's coming, that's when we want you to start coming into their world.

Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense.

what systems or workflows can help make the social media process more sustainable for the long term? Because you mentioned someone went in and did it for a week and then stopped, and then that's not good. So I guess the goal is long term and having consistency long term. So are there any kind of systems workflows that help?

Yeah, so number one, commit to scheduling because it's very easy to get so excited about what you posted that you want to post it now. going into a scheduler, you can use Meta Business Suite for free if you want to do Facebook and Instagram, or there's platforms like enji or Later is what I use, you can use, Later is great for an agency platform. If you have just one account.

Okay.

use something like Enji or Meta Business Suite to save money. But this way you get to add a glance of the month and you can see, first just do every Monday, right? And have every Monday be a theme. Maybe you're doing your spotlighting weddings, you know? And so you do every Monday and then you do every Thursday. Maybe those are going to be your talking head videos or your reels and you have that set up. And then the other systems really are about what

⁓

content creation looks like for you. So one is having, you know, that drive set up and ready to go. So when you're ready to pull content, it's there. Another is when I see content that I get ideas from, save it. Save it into a collection on your Instagram, Pinterest, whatever platform you're using. So when you're ready to sit and work, you have it all there. There are a lot of social media accounts that give you

and prompts and caption ideas to use. I'm always following them and saving that content so that when I'm ready to sit, I have it all there. And even if you're using, I use stock video for some clients because they don't have a content creator who's gotten stuff for them. So I use a site called dupephotos.com and they have vertical videos that are great for reels.

Mm-hmm.

And so before I'm ready to create content, I'll go to Dupe Photos, I'll put in weddings, and I'll save some stuff that looks on brand. And this way, when inspiration comes, I'm not going, but I don't have a video, or ⁓ my photos are a mess, or I don't have an idea. You have everything ready to go where you need it.

Yeah.

Is video king right now?

I think it is for getting new people, you know, but I don't think it's it because when I look at my clients accounts, I'm seeing that the posts really are performing well and they're also bringing in new people. But to have the type of growth we need as business owners, you got to have a blend of both, you know, so do a blend, start with at least one reel a week is what I'd recommend. Then let your analytics dictate how often you're going to keep it up.

Okay.

⁓ okay.

So having a blend is really important too. Yeah.

Yes, yes. You've

got to do at least both. And by both, mean reels and then carousel videos, carousel photos, excuse me. Having more than one photo is important because then it gets pushed out to your followers twice. So if they don't engage with the first slide, Instagram will feed it to them again, starting at the second slide. So it increases your chances. So rather than just posting one wedding shot, post two at least. Yeah.

Yeah.

⁓

Well, and I noticed that lately. So

yeah, no, I'm like, I've already saw this post, but now I'm on the second slide or I'm on the third. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Tricky little algorithm. All right, Nina, what are some signs that someone's social media strategy is like a waste of time instead of generating results?

You're saying, like it, darn it. Kevin, give me a like.

Yeah.

If your profile does not say where you service, that's a big problem because we are competing for time. And when a couple finally decides to go to your profile, they're not then going to dig to see if you're in Dallas or not, or if you're in their location. You may assume they're going to then click to your website or click one of your posts.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and sometimes wedding vendors will say to me, well, you know, I don't really know if I want to be Dallas or Fort Worth or, know, what my real area is. And you just have to commit and try it then just at least put Texas, right? Put something, you know? Yeah. Cause missing that. And if it's destination, put destination, put that you travel, whatever it is. Cause don't assume that couples are gonna.

Yeah, Metroplex something.

Mm-hmm.

search and dig to find it. Chances are they won't. Not to mention it's searchable and will help the algorithm too. There's a reason why for people's names they'll put, you know, Tamara Fort Worth wedding planner. That's because people are more likely searching Fort Worth wedding planner than they're searching Tamara. So when you put that in your name, it helps you come up for that search.

That's a good, good, good, good advice right there because I would have never thought about that at all.

Yeah, so that's

usually the first thing I do if I'm on a strategy call with someone. We look at that and then we figure out what we want to put in the name. And next time you're on Instagram, test it out and put in your area. Put in Long Island wedding planner or Long Island venue and see what comes up and then you'll notice it's in their name. So if you want to start coming up as a priority, tweak your name a bit.

Yeah, no, it makes complete sense. all right, Nina, how should wedding pros measure whether their social media is actually working?

So we mentioned before studying the link taps, but don't get discouraged about it. It's not just that alone, right? But you want to be seeing our things growing, our things moving the needle. It doesn't mean to give up on social media altogether, but it means maybe you got to tweak your voice. Maybe you're trying to fit into a mold that isn't you. Cause like I said, not everybody is that content creator couple. So maybe you think that's what you have to be and it's not you, right? So if-

Mmm.

You're not seeing the numbers you want. It doesn't necessarily mean it's not working. Just maybe what you're doing isn't working. So think, have I mentioned my area? Have I given juicy content? Have I addressed things couples actually want to know and hear? Am I showing my best looking work? And getting into that and reviewing that. So going into the analytics, looking at your link tab.

Hmm.

looking at your profile views and looking at what your most successful pieces of content were in the past month, in the past quarter, in the past year. If they were posted six months ago, repurpose it, do that concept again and post it again in a different way. And then on Instagram specifically,

not for reels, but for feed content, you can see if your post generated people going over to your website. So there's a stat for it when you go into your analytics and you open up a post you did, it will show you how many people shared it, how many people saved it, and how many people went onto your profile. So that was goal one, get them to the profile. And then if they did goal two and went to your website,

you'll have that stat. So if you have a post that did that, then you want to think, okay, how can I do this again?

If someone feels overwhelmed by content creation right now, what's the first thing they should change?

I think opening your mind to that, it doesn't have to be overwhelming. So sticking with one thing, if reels are too hard for you right now, then just don't do reels, right? I'd rather you post, know, portfolio work than nothing. So it's okay if you're not ready to do reels. Using tools like CapCut, which is where they create the reels for you, you just put in your photos. So go download CapCut and type in montage.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

That's nice.

photo montage and that will be where you can just put in your photos and it creates the music and the audio and everything together and that makes it a little easier for you. Start there. So take small steps. Don't force yourself to do something that doesn't feel right. For example, I have clients who sometimes don't want to show their photo. So I'm not going to force them into it. I'm going to say, well, you got to give me one. You got to give me your favorite photo of yourself.

Mm-hmm.

And then when we post that, people comment going, oh my gosh, I miss Denise so much. She was the best at my wedding. oh my gosh, Denise was a lifesaver. And then you're getting real reviews on your post, cause you were willing to post yourself. And that kind of takes away the overwhelm a bit cause you're going, it works. So just giving yourself time, giving yourself grace and just, you know, stretching your comfort a little bit to try these things.

Yeah.

Now, what about posting like behind the scene content, like, you know, setting up, you know, some building something in the warehouse, you know, any of that kind of, you know, I guess how the sausage is made in the videos.

stuff is great and it's great if you're not like a talking head or if you're an introvert, right? Because you can just set up the tripod or just lean it against a chair, whatever you have to do, and just let it post and do a time lapse. And then that video can be as simple as, know, come set up a 350-person wedding with me or come, you know, assemble invitation suites for, you know, XYZ.

Okay.

people love to see that stuff. a matter of fact, Kevin, before this while I was working, I had on a YouTube video of a woman who's a stationary designer and she's packing orders and it just felt like what they call body doubling where I'm working with somebody else. You know, it was just, ⁓ it was just really nice. But people like this type of content. It's what they're consuming. They want to see the transformation. It shows how you make it happen.

Yeah. Yeah!

This balloon arch and escort card table doesn't just show up, right? I am putting one piece up at a time and you can repurpose that content. You can use it. You can use it for B-roll to go with reels. You can use it right after that wedding immediately to say we're setting up for, you know, Casey and Steve today. There's so much you can do with that just by recording a minute of your setup.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow, and that's amazing how you can multi-purpose all that into different, you know, multiple uses. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

And these work well even on YouTube shorts, you know. You could take some of your best pieces and try using it on there. There's so many ways you could use it, not only repurposing it on one platform, but repurposing it for several platforms.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And you mentioned putting like your phone up on a chair. Is there a little bit of like some simple equipment, you know, like a, you know, a simple tripod or a couple of things that you should have?

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean

it can be as simple as going to five below right and just you know a handheld item or somebody made me on a 3d printer they 3d printed a cell phone holder and I use I've been using that all the time and it's been so great the biggest hack though for video quality is To use the back camera, which means you're not using the selfie cam. You're using the back camera. So

Okay.

⁓

Okay.

What I will use is I have, ⁓ if you look it up on TikTok shop, right? It will be a selfie cam mirror. I clip a little mirror so this way I can see from the backside if I'm in frame. And that's the cheapest and easiest method. There are other ones where you have to connect them to Bluetooth and it will be like a full on mirror of your phone. But for me, I just like the mirror clip. That's nice and easy.

⁓

Yeah.

Yeah, that's nice because then that makes it easy and you know, then you can see what you're doing. But then you have the good quality of that really good camera in there. Yeah, that's even better. We love the word cheap. So, all right, we're getting to the end here, but I wanted to ask you one more question about like if you're embarrassed to see yourself on video or you're not comfortable being out in front of people, is there

And it's cheap. Yes. Yes.

a tip or a hack or something, do you just do it and you get comfortable with it? Like for me, I just don't look at what we do. And I just know that that's my like hack for it. But is there any little tips and tricks for people? Because I feel like with social media, people want to connect with the people, not so much the pretty photos, you know, so they want to see the people behind it. what tips and tricks for that?

Yeah.

So number one would be take your favorite photo, post it, see how well it does, right? Cause it's going to do well. And then two would be when you look, let yourself use the filter, right? I let myself use the filter cause it's like, if that's the difference between me trying to help my business or not, I'm going to use the filter. Right? ⁓ Number three would be, for example, if you want to go live, I made sure all of my siblings were available when I was going.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

because I needed to make sure at least somebody was in there and they would ask me questions and it made it that much easier. But maybe if you're doing a real and it's something not live, you send it to your group, right? Whether it's your siblings, your vendor friends, your spouse, whoever it is, you say, yeah, say, look, I need some engagement on this. And then, you know, really maybe creating content days where you're only doing it when you're

Yeah. Your support group.

dressed and ready to go. Maybe if you're, you go to church on Sundays and you're dressed up for church, know that 20 minutes before you leave, you're going to film content because you like how you look. Or maybe you just do it after you get a haircut and you just change your outfits, get as much as you can. ⁓ It's, it is hard and it is scary, but also, you know,

Yeah.

Doing just, if you're too shy to have it be centered on your face and you talking, then doing that behind the scenes content and maybe it's you pouring your cup of coffee or stuffing envelopes or setting up and plugging things in, whatever it is, cheat it a bit and take baby steps and give yourself grace and remind yourself why you're doing it. You're doing it for your business. So I'm willing to just surrender caring.

No, no.

I'm not saying that's gonna be easy for everybody, but I've just given up.

It's like, know what? I no longer care about how I look. I just have to put out this stupid reel. And that's the reality of my life today.

Yeah No,

that's true and and you had a good advice in there where you were saying like batching it I think that's where a lot of people in the social in just in the wedding industry overall get you know, like how is that person doing so much content and Most of the time you talk to someone and they're batching it, you know, like they like you said they're changing their outfits multiple times or doing you know And in one, you know a little two-hour four-hour little jaunt in the day. They got a month

and

Yeah.

plus worth the content, you know, all taken care of. So.

Yeah, and it's

a simple as look, you have a cardigan over your shirt, right? Then you take that off. Now it's just the shirt. Take out the ponytail, hair is down, just little things you can do even if you don't have a full wardrobe you can take on site with you.

You

Yeah, no, I totally get it. I have two podcast recordings today. You're my first and I was going to wear this and then I'm going to pull it off and then I'll look. Yeah, I'll look different on the next one. So yeah. Yeah, no. Yeah, it's little tips and tricks that, you know, it's just easy. So because I used to drag a bunch of shirts and, know, if I had like there's days where we'll do three or four, then I'm bringing clothes and that's that's a whole different thing. But yeah, with a couple, you can get it. You can get creative and get away with it. yeah.

That's perfect! You get it. You get it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

and cheat it, yeah.

All right, Nina, you were fabulous and gave the listeners a lot of great information. So where can our listeners learn more about you and where to connect?

Yeah, I'm at @idoweddingmarketing on all the social media platforms or on LinkedIn. I'm big LinkedIn fan. You can find me at Nina Addeo. And if you go to idoweddingmarketing.com, that's where you can learn about working with me or joining my monthly membership to social studio. So that's where I give the prompts and content hooks for you. So you just have to log in there as part of your system and just get rolling from there.

I love it. And then you mentioned LinkedIn. recently went to a conference and learned LinkedIn, all the strategies you talked about today don't work on LinkedIn. So you have, there's a whole different group of strategies and all kinds of different things. So that's, that's a whole nother can of worms, probably a whole nother podcast we could talk about. So, all right, Nina, you were fabulous. We can't thank you enough for being here today and folks we'll see you next time on another episode of mind your wedding business.

Yeah, Yes, yes.

Yay!