293 – Social Media Ideas to Do NOW to Bring in Holiday Sales with Bobbi Baehne of of Think Big Go Local

Gift biz unwrapped episode 293,

and it's never to sell because nobody goes to these platforms

with the intention of buying things,

they go there to either be entertained or informed or to

feel connection and to build relationships.

Attention gifters bakers,

crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

Now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode,

packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow.

Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

It's Sue.

Thanks for joining me here today.

As you might imagine,

as the holidays creep closer,

it gets harder and harder to find time for my guests

to come on the show and do an interview.

Since this is the experience that I've seen,

I've already recorded quite a few upcoming shows,

and I have to tell you,

there are some amazing conversations coming up.

So hit the subscribe button right now,

because honestly you don't want to miss a single one of

these, including today's.

But before we get into that,

I want to update you on what's going on in my

private community gift biz breeze.

Each year.

At this time,

we run posts,

highlighting your holiday products that are available for purchase based on

interactions and requests I've seen in the group.

We're taking this a step further with the introduction of the

buzz book.

The first version has been out now for a few weeks,

and I'm hearing such uplifting stories about Howard's working just as

intended. The buzz book is a compilation of small handmade business

owners like you and provides a way for you to support

each other.

You can do this by purchasing from each other,

of course,

but it goes much deeper than that.

This is a way to connect with people who make a

product similar to yours to discuss the nuances of your industry.

It's a way to easily get in touch with fellow Breezers

in your local community so that you can get together for

one-on-one coffee chats or even establish a more formal face to

face networking type meeting.

It's also a way to create collaborations.

I've seen local brick and mortar shops reach out to regional

makers to display their products in store.

This helps increase their visibility during a very challenging time.

I've also watched Breezers get together and do virtual shopping,

chose offering different,

but compatible products,

thereby getting exposure to each other's audiences and let's face it.

This going live thing is a lot easier when you do

it with somebody which reminds me,

did you see the Facebook live interview?

I did on comment sold it's over in my Instagram account

at GIF is unwrapped.

This will help you see how easy and efficient your live

streaming sales shows can be.

Stay tuned for a podcast episode,

all about comments sold as well,

but no time to wait with the holidays coming.

So make sure and go check out that IGT TV,

the things we can do through our connections together is far

greater than what we can achieve on our own.

So getting back to the buzz book,

it facilitates that,

and it's totally free for more details and to learn how

to be listed.

Join the gift biz breeze,

Facebook group,

all the details.

Along with a video,

talking more about the program are right there,

separated as a special unit for easy access.

Moving into the show today.

I challenged Bobby to tell us exactly what we need to

be doing online right now to attract sales.

She reminds us of something really important.

The majority of people don't go into their social media accounts

to buy we're so focused on our businesses.

I think we forget that.

So what do you do body to the rescue Today?

I am so excited to bring back on Bobby Baney.

She was on an episode way back when I don't even

remember what episode it was,

but guess what we weren't talking about social media,

but today we are.

Bobby is the president of think big go local,

a digital marketing firms,

specializing in social media,

web design and messenger bot creation.

She's passionate about sharing her knowledge with businesses that need an

edge over their competitors and a solid strategy for capturing the

attention of their desired audience.

Bobby delivers actionable tactics that business owners are looking for to

develop and execute effective marketing strategies in her own authentic style.

She illustrates the most effective ways to reach and engage online

audiences, providing valuable recommendations on how to convert them into loyal

pain customers.

Bobby's been published in Huffington post inc magazine,

the Chicago Tribune,

and is a TEDx speaker.

Bobby, welcome back to the gift biz on rep Podcast.

Hi Sue.

It is so great to be here and to hear your

voice again.

I know it's like,

we're not That far away in distance,

but given the times we're really far away Because we can't

see each other.

It feels further than normal.

Doesn't it?

I know.

And it was nice that we were able to see each

other right before lockdown.

We got Robbins event in the week before everything shut down.

Yeah, we were right there On the edge,

right Under the gun,

because I remember that we weren't sure if we should give

hugs or shake hands at the event.

Cause things were just coming down.

Nobody knew what was going on.

Exactly. And we all made it out of there in one

piece. So grateful.

Yes. That seems like eons ago.

And it's been less than a year,

Right? Yeah.

it's on the way out,

But let's make it a smashing fabulously glorious end of the

year. How about that?

Absolutely. There's still lots and lots of time that we need

to focus on making sure our businesses are ending strong.

True. How has business changed for you given this last year?

Since I last saw you,

It was really interesting.

And I feel like we've made some really monumental shifts over

and over again.

And kind of since this pandemic hit,

the first thing that I found to be pretty interesting was

when lockdown started and everybody realized that they were losing their

opportunity to do in-person networking and to do their normal sales

and things like that.

All of a sudden,

so many business owners were in a panic because they had

put off what I think is one of the greatest ways

to grow your business.

And all of a sudden realized they needed to shift strategies.

They needed to find a new way to communicate.

And so our first two months of what had to no

let's call it Blackdown or working from home,

we really decided we had to spend trying not to operate

out of fear because everybody was so nervous about what this

was doing to the economy.

And we were seeing I'm sure what a lot of other

people experienced kind of a fall off of certain customers that

were already on the edge and things.

But what we realized we needed to do was just offer

our support to our fellow small business owners who were truly

in a panic and we're going to need more resources.

We were already pretty accustomed to working in the digital space.

The tech didn't make us nervous.

Getting in front of cameras didn't make us nervous,

but all of those things were making our clients flip out

because now they needed to utilize that because it was all

that was left to get in front of customers.

We spent a ton of time developing strategies and classes to

help people figure out how do I go live on Facebook?

How do I let go live on Instagram?

How do I set up zoom meetings?

What are all these tools that I need?

How do I set up my cameras?

My lighting people can't hear me.

All of these things that I felt like I'd been preaching

for years.

All of a sudden people had to pay attention to.

So we just made it our sole mission for a couple

months just to offer as much help as we could because

there was just so much change happening.

Yeah. I've heard this over and over again.

I knew I was supposed to be doing and I'd heard

about Facebook live before.

I understand why I should.

I'm anxious about doing it.

I'll put it off.

I'll put it off,

put it off.

And then all of a sudden it,

when it becomes the only thing that you can really do

to communicate,

at least initially when we were really locked down.

Now we're some of us are able to come out,

et cetera.

I feel like the field thing that can poke your head

up. What is it?

What's that animal?

Oh gosh.

Well I want to say Groundhog the Groundhog.

Like I feel like the Groundhog,

they can pop its head out,

look around,

see what the status is and you either get to come

out or go down.

Yeah, exactly.

At that point,

as I'm thinking it,

wasn't just the fear which we all have of going live

when you first start doing it.

But the whole tech thing,

like you're saying,

There's fear,

there's technology and then their strategy.

So you know that you don't just jump on and go

live and get off.

And that's it.

I mean,

that's great.

If you've got a gigantic following that just sits there waiting

for you to go live.

But for most of us,

it involves a little bit more work,

letting people know when you're going to go live,

what value you're going to offer?

When is it going to happen?

Somehow setting reminders or countdowns,

how to repurpose afterwards and get more eyeballs on that video.

And there's just a whole strategy.

And I think one of the lessons that I learned just

in a really obvious way,

but that I hope other business owners we're learning too,

is when we see these technologies become available and really create

opportunity for us,

we really can't afford to wait for so many reasons.

One of the reasons I never thought I'd be saying is

cause a pandemic might hit and you might need the stuff

that was not.

I thought people were just going to need it.

But just the opportunities to kind of jump in when the

algorithm is being really favorable to some of these tools,

I wish people would have listened when we were saying,

Hey, do this.

Because then when this unforeseen thing came into play,

people who had already embraced that were like,

woo, I am golden.

I've got a strategy.

And I'm just going to spend more time doing this.

Other people were just in a panic and frustrated and scared

trying to then learn something new when a really stressful anxiety

filled time of their lives.

So I'm going to ask you a question that you have

to answer,

honestly, with all the compassion in the world.

Didn't a little part of you be like I told you.

So yeah,

no doubt about it.

I even said it a few times.

Not with judgment,

like you said,

or malice,

but Oh my gosh,

you guys,

I told you,

you needed to be creating this kind of content,

which is why we decided,

okay, we're just going to start doing live classes so you

can do live Q and A's and let's get you all

into this place so that you have a chance.

Yeah, absolutely.

And have you seen a lot of people then take it

to heart and really start doing live?

I have,

I think a ton and Facebook is telling us to the

use of Facebook is been up dramatically since COVID hit for

people who thought maybe that platform is becoming less relevant,

not true.

This was kind of a real boost for their usage and

it caused a lot of change and they rolled out a

lot of things.

Yeah. I think a lot more people are using those tools

because we don't have a whole lot of other choices and

Facebook, I have to give them credit sometimes I think they're

slow on certain things,

but they have sure ramped up opportunity and tools for small

businesses over the last six to nine months.

And we've got to thank them for that.

Where else would we have been to your point?

Exactly. Let's dive into the holiday stuff right now.

It's really important for all of us to recognize that when

so many people start talking about the same thing,

because I've been preaching live from the standpoint of this is

how you differentiate yourself because no one can be like you,

other people might be able to sell candles or pottery and

they might have a little bit of a different technique in

terms of the output of the product,

but there's no place where anyone can be just like you

versus you showing your personality and the best way to show

your personality is when you're live.

Absolutely. There's so much opportunity and so much advantage.

And I know it's scary.

I know it's hard for people to think about doing this

themselves and the pandemic kind of pushed us into it because

it's either this or nothing.

It's interesting too,

that you mentioned that because I have this story that I'll

share really quickly about going live on Facebook.

And it was really a lesson to me.

I'm involved in a local music festival that we do here

in my community.

And I do the marketing,

the social media,

and I also emcee the events.

It was appropriate for me to go live on behalf of

the organization that does this music festival and talk about the

event as a way to get people excited,

tell them who the talent is going to be,

who are our sponsors,

what the day's going to look like.

Who's doing food.

So I would go live every week for about four weeks

before the event.

And I would just be talking about what people can expect.

And we had a lot of local people tune in and

when I would see them,

I'd acknowledge them,

answer their comments,

that sort of thing.

Well, when the event took place and I got out there,

it was so ridiculous.

People were stopping me all day.

Oh Bobby,

you told me to introduce myself.

I saw you out here or thank you for sharing this

piece of information.

I would have never come.

Had you not said that.

The thing that was so interesting about it is one.

It was so cool.

I got to meet so many people,

I didn't know in the community,

but the people that I met actually felt like we knew

each other,

that we were friends and had a relationship.

And from the moment they introduced themselves,

it was so different than meeting a stranger.

And it was truly the power of people watching you and

starting to feel that emotional connection,

Hey, I can relate to this woman for whatever reason,

it was just really,

really powerful to see how much power,

that relationship building aspect of showing who you are in that

unique way really,

really has people want to connect.

They don't want to look at your logo.

They want to understand who you are and connect with you

and feel like they have something in common and live is

one of the only ways to really do that.

I mean,

even video can be so edited and produced that people don't

always feel like it's authentic.

You don't get that when you go live.

It is authentic.

And I think that that really just appeals to people Whole

different way.

I think.

So your story is so powerful because give biz listeners just

think of it.

If you could have that type of a relationship with people

who are watching that you don't even know yet,

but feel that they know you so well automatically walks the

path down to them,

buying your product and being interested.

And I think that's the whole thing about live Bobby.

That's a great example.

You're talking about it in relation to showing up at an

event, people coming up and feeling that you're approachable because you're

so friendly.

Obviously it comes across in your voice.

We know that,

but feeling comfortable,

even coming up and saying hi to you,

have you seen a lot of those people come and start

using your services?

You know,

not in that particular environment because we're not reaching out to

my audience there,

but in all reality,

yes, because it builds our brand in the local community in

a really strong way.

I'm very recognizable because I get that visibility in front of

a huge audience.

So yes,

in a roundabout way,

it has,

because it just helps build our brand and make us known.

We're reaching out to a different demographic through that.

But at the end of the day,

the more people see you,

the more they get to know you,

the more they feel like you're in their network,

the more you're going to build your personal and business brand.

And ultimately that's going to lead to a better bottom line.

Absolutely. I want to start getting really tactical here.

I specifically was interested in having you come back on the

show, Bobby right now,

because everyone is so concerned about holiday sales.

A lot of the craft shows aren't going to be happening

if they are happening in person,

there's severe social distancing.

So the number of people that are able to come into

the shows,

I mean at six feet,

I don't mean to say it differently than that,

but people who are able to come into the shows,

the whole crowd is different.

And a lot of people just aren't going to come.

We're going back to social and relying specifically on social media,

just like you've been talking about the pandemic forced us into,

but I'd love to start talking about what specifically our listeners

could do to help get visibility.

And then also lead them down towards selling products online through

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Well, let me share a few things I've been thinking about

for this industry.

One, I always try to find silver linings and every challenge

that I see.

And one of the things about the times that we're in

right now is I feel while there's a ton of competition

everybody's buying online,

and this has almost been kind of an opportunity for everybody

to start on a level playing ground.

There is tremendous opportunity out there for crafters and makers and

bakers and all of those people,

because everybody's pretty much got the same tools to work with

at this particular moment.

No one's going in the big stores as much either.

But one thing I think that businesses really need to focus

on right now is understanding what has changed with your audience

over the last year.

If you haven't done it recently,

make sure you're diving into your insights and analytics and taking

a really good look at what's changed.

So Facebook and Instagram have been telling us for months that

they have not only seen an increased use in their apps,

but that the times that people are using them is completely

been flipped upside down from maybe the strategy we were using

nine months ago or a year ago,

even prime time TV,

which used to be what later in the evening has become

like in the middle of the day,

because everybody's home.

We really need to look at that first and see if

there's any adjustments we need to make.

And when we're reaching out to people,

when we're creating content,

make sure we know where our audience is spending time and

what time they're there so that we can strategically post to

get the most visibility.

That's one thing I think everybody needs to do just because

there's been so many changes that have taken place.

Okay. I have a question with insights.

Sure. When I look at my insights,

it always goes up right?

When I'm posting fire hit,

have something that's going out at 11 o'clock.

For example,

my insights go up,

is that because I'm posting?

So people are looking at it right away.

Like if I were to have posted instead at 9:00 AM,

would my insights have gone up at nine instead?

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking at,

but that's really interesting suits.

There is definitely the opportunity to kind of train your audience

when you're putting content up there.

And I know that you have a very engaged audience.

I don't know if that's necessarily true for everybody though.

We primarily look at our audience,

not in necessarily in relation to our content,

but when are they active?

What days are they active on social?

And what times are they most active?

And then we kind of decide to post our content a

little bit before that time.

So it's been floating there for half hour an hour before

we expect the majority of people to log in.

It shouldn't be tied to your direct content though.

So those analytics should really be based on what Facebook and

Instagram knows about their audiences usage of the app.

That's an interesting exercise to kind of play with though,

because a lot of this stuff is we're kind of guessing

and testing all the time All the time.

And I will also say I've also used some of the,

is it an Instagram app?

When is the right time to actually In a lot of

third-party apps that help you with scheduling have things like that

built in as well,

where they kind of examine your profile really quickly and make

a recommendation Be that because I looked at that and then

coordinated along with that,

that that's why it's coinciding together too.

That could be but very interesting.

If you haven't looked at your insights for a while,

or if you've never looked at your insights,

Bobby, which is probably many of our listeners,

If you have never done it,

I highly recommend you put a little spot in your calendar

at least once a month to do a little audit of

these things.

Cause we need to know when it's time to shift strategies

or understand what's working because those things can change.

And if we're not paying attention,

we just may be noticing,

Hey, sales are down engagements down without really realizing there was

a shift somewhere that we could have identified and addressed and

kept things moving.

So definitely do that every month.

Take it way back just because I know there'll be some

listeners who will get caught up in this.

You see insights.

If you have a business account,

let's say on Instagram,

if you're using Instagram as a personal account,

you don't have insights.

If you flip your account over to being business,

then you'll see insights.

Yes, absolutely.

Because some people Might go back and look and be like,

wait, what?

I don't have Any.

Yeah. And for people there is a new option in Instagram

too. So I know for some reason there were people that

get all hesitant to switch it to business,

but you can also switch to a creator account depending what

it is that you do that kind of lets you maintain

that personal brand of your account,

but gives you the tools that a business account has.

So you could establish a creator account and that doesn't have

to directly connect to a business profile on Facebook.

So there is that third option now for people who are

just maybe for whatever reason,

maybe they have a unique business model or they're hesitant to

make that switch.

For some reason,

if you switched to creator,

you can get access to some of that info.

Okay. Business account on Instagram can link to a Facebook business

page, a creator account on Instagram stands alone.

Yes, it can stand alone.

So you don't have to connect that to the business page,

but you get the insights so that you're kind of able

to identify,

you get more information about your audience.

Think of it as a creator,

more like an influencer,

maybe like a YouTuber type of a thing versus someone in

business to sell a product or service 30 of our people

then, because we're product creators.

I like to be really tangible and give people direct answers

for this.

So it's good to know that there's the creator account,

but more than likely for the majority of people who are

listening here,

they would want a business account.

So they can also then connect it to their Facebook page.

Absolutely. Yes.

That's how I set up my business account and how I

would encourage any business owner to do that.

That's actually selling something.

This is the first step we're talking about how to put

yourself in the best position to capture holiday sales for this

season. And we're what five weeks away from Christmas.

If you're listening,

when this went live.

So first thing,

go look at your insights.

We're looking at when people are most likely online to your

point, Bobby,

we want to then put out content when we have the

best opportunity of getting the most eyes on our content.

And we're talking all organic right now and we're not talking

to anything paid Exactly right.

That's a great organic strategy to get in front of as

many people as you can,

just out the gate,

know where they're at and what time they're on.

And then the next thing that I would say is so

important. And,

and this is where things get a little uncomfortable for people

that don't like to try new things or get a little

hesitant to be in front of the camera.

But you have to look at the platforms where your audience

is at and identify really what tools and opportunities are feeding

the algorithm.

What are they giving preferential treatment to in those platforms that

you can leverage to maximize your reach and just basically get

in front of people right now,

I would say that those things hands down are live streaming

and that would apply to Facebook and Instagram creating content in

stories. There is no doubt.

Stories is such a big deal,

but only two right now,

maybe be beaten out by the introduction of reels and Instagram,

who we have noticed.

Instagram's giving a ton of reach to people creating reels.

The reels are getting a lot more reach than stories are

getting right now.

And if you're creating reels,

it's even helping to increase visibility on your profile and your

other content,

looking at these new things that are there and saying,

okay, it's time to utilize these tools,

develop a strategy,

figure out how to do it.

There's so much that goes into it,

but you just can't afford to wait.

There's a lot of people sitting at home right now,

doing everything they can to make their businesses sustainable through to

this next year.

You've just got to utilize these opportunities.

Creating content in reels stories and live streaming are absolutely huge.

Totally. A hundred percent agree with you for someone who's listening,

who's never done any of this that's way.

Overwhelming. It really is overwhelming.

It's Prioritized for us.

Someone is on Facebook and Instagram will say they have both

of the accounts.

They have them connected.

So if they do Instagram,

it jumps over to Facebook,

whether you should or not,

that's a whole different conversation,

but they've never gone live before.

All three of these things have some type of a live

component to it.

Which one should they start with?

I think part of it becomes in where do you feel

like you can enter into that space with the most amount

of comfort?

I feel for example,

reels is probably way over the head for someone that's never

even created stories and stories can feel really intimidating if you've

really never gotten in front of the camera either.

Cause it takes a little bit more creativity.

I feel like a more natural progression,

but someone feels more comfortable in another space.

They can start there,

but I feel like starting with a strategy for going live

is a good place to start.

It's conversational at this point in the game,

we've probably all been on enough zoom meetings and getting into

messenger and things like that.

That we're probably a little more comfortable doing a live streaming

scenario where we're talking to the camera now in a conversational

way and then figure out what are you going to do

there? Are you going to show people how to use your

product? Are you going to show off the different,

maybe value propositions your product has and different ways to utilize

it, ways to gift it ways to customize it,

whatever it might be,

figure out how you can start doing live content that showcases

the products that you sell.

I think that would be a great place to start.

Plus kind of allows you to get in the habit of

how do I repurpose some of this live content,

maybe pull some quotes out,

maybe download it and put it on YouTube.

Just kind of spend some time figuring out what you can

do with that type of content,

how you can get better at it and then move to

the next thing.

But I think going into the holidays at a bare minimum,

people gotta be creating stories,

Live streaming,

but also stories for sure.

Yeah. Yeah.

Also stories for sure.

Facebook is telling us that they're seeing a trend where people

are watching more story content and less of the newsfeed content.

We have to show up where people are spending their time,

every platform out there as launching stories.

So it's pretty hard to deny how irresistible they are in

terms of viewership.

I mean,

Facebook has them.

Instagram has them.

YouTube is testing them.

Twitter is testing them.

LinkedIn just launched them.

Stories are everywhere and we need to make sure we're leveraging

that space.

Real, probably going to take a little bit more watching,

experimenting, learning before people really dive into that that are maybe

feeling hesitant or aren't quite as comfortable,

but you've got to embrace stories as part of your strategy

right now to drive traffic for the holidays.

Plus with all the new tools they've put in the story

platforms, people can buy right from you.

There, you can support small businesses.

There's just so many ways to engage people in a story

that you really aren't able to do anywhere else live regular

posts. Anything stories are a necessity to figure out how to

leverage that for your business.

Okay. So I have a question on stories.

Now it used to be that the only people who saw

your stories were people who were following you on your account.

At least to my way of thinking could be wrong.

And you could correct me there,

but now recently,

and I've been doing some testing with this.

I'm adding hashtags to my stories,

to broaden my reach of my stories,

but I'm hiding it behind images.

So you're not seeing it on the story,

but it's spreading.

Is that a good idea?

Bad idea.

Talk to me about what I'm doing.

It's a fantastic idea.

Here's the reason why hashtags are so important in our stories

is one people follow hashtags.

If we're utilizing hashtags in our story,

we have the potential to pop in front of somebody who

follows that hashtag,

which clearly means there's a like-minded individual and a potential new

follower. If we're doing a good job of making sure they're

relatable to our content that we're sharing.

That's a great reason to get hashtags in.

There is it does get us found.

It does help our content get found in search as well.

Even if someone doesn't follow the hashtag,

they could come across our story based on the hashtags that

we're utilizing.

So great strategy,

hiding them behind photos is awesome.

You can use,

I believe up to 13 hashtags in a story,

some of the ways you can hide them.

Like you said,

hide them behind an image.

You can also use the color picker in your colors and

make your hashtag blend into the background.

So if you have a blue sky,

grab the color picker,

make your hashtag blue people won't even see it in the

backdrop. There's definitely ways to do it.

One thing that was being taught a lot about a year

or so ago was to reduce the size of it.

So it was so small.

You couldn't see it,

but I've been told that the algorithm is identifying that.

So we don't want to shrink them to small.

Your strategy of hiding them is definitely a better idea.

Utilizing hashtags is great.

Another thing you can be doing in your stories to get

more visibility is using tags,

create notifications,

every chance that you can in your story,

because even for big brands,

they might get shown.

As an example,

we were talking about messenger bots in our story a couple

of weeks ago,

and we tagged many chat,

huge messenger marketing platform.

We're partners with many chat,

but I mean they're gigantic,

but because we tagged them,

they shared our story into their story,

allowing us then to connect with a whole bunch of other

individuals that create bots that are in the digital marketing space.

Because now we got seen by many chats audience of hundreds

of thousands versus ours is much smaller utilizing hashtags and tags

to create notifications is a great way to expand your reach

and even get that content.

Okay. Perfect ideas for us in our creative space.

You know how I talk about how behind the scenes,

everyone wants to know what's going on.

They're curious about how you make your product,

et cetera.

You could tag the providers of some of the elements of

your product,

the little pieces and parts of what you make,

where you're getting them from.

You could tag the tools that are used.

Maybe it's a cricket or a ribbon printer or different types

of things like that.

You might tag.

If you're talking about colors and branding,

maybe you even tag Crayola or Pantone or who knows what,

but so it's not just what your product is.

It could be the elements of your product.

And I love this idea,

Bobby, in terms of expanded visibility,

I'm not doing this enough.

So I'm taking this on.

I loved when you said the ribbon printer of what,

a great way for you to generate content.

I mean,

it's just such a win-win for everybody.

When you do that.

I know when you think about that,

if people are tagging the ribbon printer in their content,

that's an easy share for you.

Why wouldn't you want to put that on your story,

shows how other people are using your products and their story.

It's a positive basically recommendation for a product that you've got.

It's a win-win for everybody.

I love that strategy and you'd be surprised even the big

brands will share your content.

Especially if you're being really intentional about kind of staging what

shows up in your story.

You create the opportunity to do that tagging Well.

And that's the thing too,

though. It has to relate to what you're showing,

because I got to tell you about it.

I get super frustrated when people tag me about something and

the story has nothing to do with me,

right? I've seen that a lot and that makes me mad.

It makes me Two.

And I agree,

and I see that as well.

And we've got to think about how are we engaging our

audience. Now,

if it was something I thought you'd be really interested in

and tagged you,

then the opportunity for you to be like,

this is so cool.

I want to share this might be there.

But if it doesn't really genuinely authentically do that.

Yeah. None of us can afford to be upsetting people in

the inbox these days.

Or if you tag,

I don't know how many tags you're allowed to have on

a picture,

but if there's like 20 twenty-five tags,

I personally am feeling used.

It's like,

all you're doing is using me as a follower for me

to share what you've done.

Exactly. Just be really careful with that,

I guess is my point Being that you've got an audience

that's so similar and everybody's in a similar niche,

a better strategy.

If you're really looking for people to help you promote is

create a small social network of friends that you can create

a group of and platforms like Instagram or Facebook and maybe

name them like your social media team and help share with

each other,

but have a strategy for it.

Like how can we help each other?

And we can all drop our content in this group.

And if it's relevant for your audience,

you can go share it,

but have an understanding and build a little team.

That's willing to do that with you.

That makes sense.

Versus a strategy like that,

that just upsets people.

I think the big thing is,

think of the receiver on the other end.

And does it make sense?

The other thing that I'm thinking of with stories that I

want to make mention of here,

I mean,

stories is for visibility stories can also be for sharing content

from others.

Let's say you have a customer or someone who you've worked

with and you want to share what they've done.

You can take.

And Bobby,

you can probably say it better than I can,

but a picture from their feed and share it to your

story. So you can help other people,

maybe their customers,

someone in your chamber,

maybe that you want to support and you can share their

products in your stories too,

to give them more visibility.

And then from there,

can you say that better Bobby And you know what?

There are just days when people just don't know what they

want to share.

And I love strategies like that on days when you're feeling

that way,

like I just don't feel creative.

I don't have my own content for whatever we all know

how days can be to say,

okay, I'm going to go.

And today I wanted to go share my five favorite businesses

and then you can go to identify those people you want

to share.

And now there's a theme to your story.

Or I went out and I found my five favorite quotes

of the day.

And you share those.

You can also do that with your own content.

Anytime we post something into our Instagram feed,

we share it into our stories to maximize visibility for our

own content.

A great strategy.

If you're putting up an Instagram post,

share that post into your story,

then create a couple more segments to add a little bit

more context or value or ask your audience some questions.

So every post you could put up as an opportunity to

get a story started as well,

or you can go share it from other people's feeds or

if they allow you to,

from their stories.

Also One of my favorite little parts is where you can

link at mention them,

but show a business's Instagram account.

And it shows the first three photos of their feed.

No, I don't know what you're talking about.

You totally do.

I'm not explaining it right.

You go to it's the support small business.

It's the one that has the business,

the sticker.

Oh yeah.

The sticker,

the sticker.

Yeah. And the sticker.

That's my favorite one,

because it adds a little bit of additional flavor to your

story because it pulls in,

well, you can click it sometime.

If you've click it,

it just shows the name,

but you click it again.

And it shows the first three posts of their feed.

I love that one.

Okay. Got you.

Yes. I mean the stickers that Instagram has launched since we

went into this pandemic,

I've been amazing.

I mean really such valuable tools.

Do you feel there's advantage to trying to blend some of

your content with a trending sticker?

I definitely think that that's a great strategy and here's the

reason we need to engage people in order to create relationships.

One of the things I love about stories is all these

opportunities to ask open-ended questions,

ask people,

polls, use a countdown sticker to create a notification for something

that's going to happen in the future.

It really is giving us such great ways to engage what

I enjoy even more.

Again, jumping back to those analytics.

If you look at your story analytics before your story expires.

So you've got to dive in there before that 24 hours

hits. It shows you the names of every people that have

watched the story who is engaged,

who hit the stickers.

Some of those stickers give you the opportunity to share them

back with just a click into your story.

There's just so many ways to learn from your audience,

let them know you're paying attention.

And then there's also in the analytics,

the opportunity to reach right out with the direct message,

which in my opinion is magic in social media.

And the most underused tool really in social media is using

direct messages to actually create relationships with people.

If you see someone popping up on your story and you

don't know who they are and day after day,

they're watching,

why wouldn't you reach out and say,

I've noticed you've been watching and I want you to know

how much I appreciate it.

And is there content I can create?

Or is there something you're looking for?

How can I add more value to this relationship?

Whatever it might be.

You just took someone from a casual viewer to a loyal

customer just by taking that five seconds to create a relationship.

So I think people need to be using that tool and

really using those analytics to identify those people on a daily

basis. Yeah.

I mean,

I go so far as to blocking out 15 or 20

minutes a day,

which seems small,

but I can get a lot done then and going in

and specifically only direct messaging on Instagram.

So if new people are following me,

I'll go look at their account.

And if they relate to what I'm doing,

or if I find interest,

I might follow them back.

But if I don't follow them back,

I'd still might DM them and say,

Hey, whatever my comments are,

or I have a question about their product or something like

that. And I've developed so many relationships doing that and it's

not, Hey,

come buy my stuff,

right? It's Anyone relationships,

again, it all leads to people buying your stuff or recommending

that someone else do that.

We've just got to create those relationships first.

And I think for a long time,

we were so focused on content creation that sometimes we forget

what our real purpose is in these platforms and it's never

to sell because nobody goes to these platforms with the intention

of buying things,

they go there to either be entertained or informed or to

feel connection and to build relationships.

We need to know that even as businesses,

that's really our primary job in that specific space,

we do a good job at it.

Then we can sell to people,

but they've got to like us and feel connected to us

first. And the thing that's so great about that.

We're all worried about being too salesy.

This is a way of building relationships,

forming bonds,

finding areas of commonality that naturally then lead to product sales.

If it's right,

exactly. Cause sometimes you build relationships with people and you're not

going to use their product and that's fine too,

but they can support you in other ways,

they can share your product with others.

You know,

there's lots of ways you can collaborate right now,

Bobby, within the group and give biz listeners who are part

of gift biz breeze that my Facebook group,

you already know this.

So many people right now are reaching out to each other

to do live shopping shows so that it's not just one

person taking control of the Facebook live.

They're doing it together.

And More interesting is that to the viewers,

then they're really thinking about what would make this appealing and

bring people on.

That's so good.

And it's not one person being really anxious about being live.

You've got a couple of people coming on together and their

audiences then are blending too.

Right? I was going to say for promotion,

every new person you bring on,

you bring their audience with them.

So Great idea.

This is just started happening naturally.

It's a beautiful thing to say.

I love it.

Love it.

Yeah. I love that.

So, all right.

Let's move to reels for a second.

I got to tell you I am sick and tired of

seeing people pointing.

It was really cool in the beginning,

but I'm kind of over it.

I agree with you.

There's a lot of that going on.

Interesting though.

A couple interesting things about reels for one,

I personally do not feel like Instagram has really even come

close to making this a very user-friendly space to use.

Just as an example,

my account doesn't have access to music and I manage a

lot of business accounts and a lot of them don't.

So I can't even create a reel and Instagram reels.

I can't create it there because I don't have access to

the music to actually make that happen.

I'm still in a position where I either have to use

a video editor to create my reel and then uploaded into

Instagram. Or what I prefer to do is create my content

and Tik TOK who has mastered this short form video concept.

I'll create it over there,

download it and then upload it into Instagram rails.

So they have a little bit of work to do.

However, that being said,

I would recommend that first of all,

people really start watching reels.

See what it's all about.

Go over to tic-tac and watch what's being created on Tik

TOK. My daughters who are younger millennials right now,

they're, you know,

one's a young mom,

one's a young professional.

They're like really into their crafting right now.

Like learning those skills that I think you develop at that

creative, younger age.

And they constantly watch how tos and craft videos and recipes

and things on Tik TOK.

There's a huge space there.

Jump in there and watch what people are doing.

And there's nothing wrong with starting to replicate those things,

but using your own voice and your own personality and your

own branding.

And then as you kind of watching,

you'll start to understand what it's all about,

what kind of content is being created.

But here's what I do love about reels.

If you go into the explore tab,

the discover tab,

basically in Instagram,

that little search magnifying glass,

each post that gets put up or each video occupies a

little square,

but the reels are given to squares.

Anyone creating reels is giving double the real estate in the

explore tab so that people are seeing that content.

They're just giving a lot more attention to reels creators right

now. So if you really want to take advantage of this

opportunity, that won't exist forever because once more people are creating

content, they won't be able to give this kind of attention

to this sort of content.

Now is a great time to start learning and testing how

to do it.

And listen,

we all stink at the things we first do.

The first time we do them.

I'm sure if I went back and watched my first live

stream, I'd probably be mortified,

but that's okay.

We get better over time.

It's new to just about everybody right now.

So dive in there and just start experimenting a little bit

because they're giving so much attention to that content.

So that's one of the things I do love about it.

Yeah. If you're at the point like Bobby Jo said live

streaming first,

you know,

don't try and capture right now because then you'll probably do

nothing. But if you've already been live streaming,

you're already doing stories and you haven't started reels.

This makes total sense to me.

And I agree with you,

Bobby, I'm still in the stage where I'm watching what other

people are doing and trying to decide what my messaging should

be on reels.

But what I'm seeing,

mostly the value I get out of reels is when someone's

teaching me something,

I didn't know some hidden thing within Instagram or some of

the entertaining things like the dancing and all of that.

I'm also enjoying just from an entertainment standpoint,

but you can in 15,

now 30 seconds really share some valuable information that someone can

use. It's really helpful.

It is.

And it's creative and you know what?

You have a creative audience.

They should be able to really wrap their head kind of

around how do I make this unique and fun?

And that's really what gets people.

Attention is one be consistent and just keep showing up,

but use that creative aspect of what you do to make

your brand and your videos a little bit unique.

I want to circle back to what you said about seeing

everybody pointing to those little text bubbles.

And I do want to say one of the reasons you're

seeing so much of that is the algorithms do give again

preferential treatment to things that are trending and the songs that

get used in those types of reels,

get more attention.

They're getting more search.

They're showing it to more people because it's a trending song

or hashtag I don't like this Bobby.

And so like you see the same thing over,

like how many times have you,

I can't even tell you how many videos I've seen to

Fleetwood Mac in the last week because people are utilizing that

because it's trending and it gets them a whole lot more

attention by utilizing a trending song.

So that's maybe one of the downfalls right now.

And maybe as the platform builds out,

gets more users and more content that'll shift a little bit.

But right now everybody jumps on a trend,

which in a way is almost a good thing while this

platform is young.

Because if you don't know what to do there,

just do what everybody else is doing.

And it's actually perfectly acceptable and will actually get you more

reach You agree with.

And if that's the way you are able to start doing

something on reels,

then go for it.

Yeah. It's a good way to just sort of dive in

and be like,

well, this is what everybody's doing.

Let's do it.

I don't know if I'm going to do it now that

I've said all that about the pointing,

because I'm going to get calls like us.

I'll tell you,

there are a lot of work.

When we first went into lockdown,

I started making some tic-tac videos out of sheer boredom.

And Holy cow,

you could spend an hour making a 32nd little video.

It can definitely suck you in.

So go into it with a strategy or you're going to

find yourself just being,

having time sucked away from you at like you can't imagine.

So a strategy,

what would my audience like to see?

How can I deliver it?

Have the whole plan first before you go in there.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean,

you said a few minutes,

know what you're going to do in that space?

I mean,

I have a personal tic-tac that I've just been playing on.

We just opened a tic-tac that we haven't even made a

video yet that Jenna,

who is our social media director at think big,

a local,

and I are going to create tic-tac videos there,

but we had to open that one going,

okay, this is our business Tik TOK.

What are we going to do here?

It's going to obviously be very different than what we do

in other places.

But the value proposition can't be that different.

What are we known for?

Why do people follow us?

And how can we deliver that in these little segments in

a totally different way than we're doing it anywhere else.

So you've got to go into it knowing that,

or you're just going to end up being lost.

I think this is a really good point too,

Bobby, because if you're going into it with business intent,

you want more followers who are going to want to relate

to you,

follow your brand,

ultimately purchase,

whatever it is that you offer,

just getting millions of viewers on a platform doesn't really necessarily

serve that purpose.

So you've got to be putting up content that people are

going to be interested in that lead to you.

Exactly. Which doesn't mean you don't do some things personal because

people want to know who's behind the brand too.

Oh sure.

Well, and ours is going to be personal and it's going

to be fun.

And knowing Jenna and I were going to dance and be

silly. However,

people need to know that if they're going to follow us,

it's not just for dances that other people created that we're

replicating it's because we're figuring out how to offer value by

teaching in that platform.

And if we can do it in a fun way,

yay for us.

But yeah,

no, what people are coming to you for,

because if you don't deliver that,

they're never going to sign up for your course,

buy your product.

Do any of those things,

if they didn't come up to you to have that value

delivered, they were just having fun watching you.

They're not your ideal client.

We need to attract our ideal clients in these spaces.

Absolutely. Did I get us off balance with the things that

you think specifically we should be doing?

The first was going to your insights,

checking to see what's changed and then adjusting your plan accordingly

and then doing what the algorithm favors,

which is all live.

So we're talking streaming stories and reels.

Yup. Was there more after this?

I put create notifications and then I was gonna say,

talk just briefly about mentioning if you sell a product,

you've got to set up Facebook and Instagram shops.

So that would be my last thing.

It's actually a good point because you can't be talking about

what they could purchase and not having a way for them,

people to get there.

How do you feel about this?

If you have an opinion,

I know that there are still a lot of people.

I see them on both platforms where they say DME,

if you're interested in buying and that's it.

So there's really no place for you to go and buy

online. And definitely there's a strategy to that.

I see that a lot of times people will go live,

especially people that have unique products,

where there's only one of them.

And basically it's like the first person to DME pay.

I see that happening.

And I guess for some business models,

maybe that works.

But I also feel like there's people that find that a

little bit more invasive and maybe feel a little uncomfortable and

that you potentially could lose buyers because people maybe don't want

to reach out in that personal way,

unless they've been following you for a long time,

maybe they'd be really comfortable.

And I guess it depends with your audience too.

You know,

if someone's DM-ing you,

then you have the whole thing of,

okay, I'll send you an invoice.

You know,

like it's all that back and forth versus click purchase done.

It's coming.

Right. Exactly.

Now that messenger has changed so much.

I'm even like starting to go,

Holy cow,

I open messenger.

I'm getting the notification and Facebook.

And I don't even know where my messages are coming from

the last couple days.

Talk about that.

We haven't discussed the merging of all of that yet.

So share with everybody what you're talking about.

This is another thing that I think people need to really

pay attention to in the coming year is the changes that

Facebook's making to messenger.

So they've been talking about it for years.

We've been really excited about what is now taking place because

we build messenger bots and think it's a really amazing technology.

But what Facebook has basically done is they are now making

messenger, the crux of all of their direct messaging and all

of their family of apps.

So right now Facebook and Instagram are fully integrated into messenger.

They are also going to be opening up the Instagram API.

Meaning if you have a messenger bot that maybe manages customer

service or takes registrations for events or however you might be

using that technology,

you're now not just limited to utilizing that in Facebook and

messenger, but you're gonna be able to use it in Instagram

as well.

Messenger is really going to become a massive tool,

not just for messaging,

for bringing people into rooms.

You can now watch content together in messenger,

but you can integrate all these tools to help your sales

funnel really flow in a different way.

We're really excited about it.

You can answer your messages from everywhere.

So if you're on your desktop,

if you're in Facebook,

the messenger app stands on its own.

Facebook is bringing in messages from Facebook and Instagram and allowing

you to respond from there,

create content for both.

It's really pretty exciting.

All of the features that they have been rolling out.

I think we're going to be seeing people using messenger more

and more as Facebook continues to expand upon it.

I mean,

at this point you don't even need to use zoom.

You can use messenger rooms and it's a great way to

bring people into a conversation,

you know,

in a platform they're already using and comfortable with.

So really tons of opportunity in messenger,

and you should definitely paying attention to all of the new

features that they're rolling out in that space and utilize them

Not so much in the U S but WhatsApp is part

of that as well.

Right? They do own WhatsApp.

They have not integrated fully to WhatsApp yet,

but that is also coming.

They've been doing a lot of work in WhatsApp and right

now some of it's kind of sitting independently,

but eventually that's going to all integrate it into messenger.

I mean,

the overall theme clearly is Easier communication,

easier contact,

easier communication with each other and deepen in relationships because that's

what it's all about.

All we've been talking about here,

Bobby this whole time.

Yeah. I mean,

it started out with how can people bring in more business

and sales this holiday season?

And it comes back to the same thing,

which is first of all,

getting seen then building relationships and then taking them deeper,

then walks the road down to connections,

collaborations, and sales,

Right. And when we talk about taking people deeper,

I mean,

we just cannot ignore everything.

Facebook and Instagram have done to make it easier for us

to sell in their platforms,

like setting up a Facebook shop,

selling from Instagram posts.

I mean,

all of these tools that make the shopping experience absolutely seamless,

not just for the user,

but even for the business is so valuable,

especially around the holidays.

And especially during a time when we just aren't that comfortable

going into the stores.

And you know what I mean?

I'm not exactly sure what retail is going to look like

on black Friday,

but I know that a ton of stores have already said

they won't even be opening that they're not going to open

on that day.

They're not going to deal with the crowds and try to

figure out how do we do that shopping experience in a

safe way,

maybe looking at just what is black Friday going to look

like and making that your focus for,

I need to get these Facebook shops set up and I

need to do something different this year.

Take advantage of the tools that were being given in the

space that everybody's spending their time in.

Couldn't agree with you more.

And if any of you don't know how to set up

your Facebook shop,

jump over to gift biz unwrapped.

We talk about all of that.

There have a course for you,

super easy way to set up and sell Bobby.

This has been phenomenal.

I appreciate so much all of your information.

Where can someone go to get more learning from you?

You've been talking earlier about all of the classes that you've

had. Where could someone go?

If they want more direction on how to go live,

doing reels,

all the things that you offer,

You can find all of that information on the training page,

on our website,

which is think big,

go local.com.

You can also find us in all the social media platforms.

Our handle everywhere is at think big,

go local,

send us a message in any platform.

And we will get back to you with any more information.

And then finally we do have a private Facebook group where

all we do is share the latest information on things that

are changing in social media,

new tools that small business owners need to utilize.

And you can find an invite to join that on our

ThinkBIG go local Facebook page.

It's called Bobby bees,

social media.

Clambake, it's a little beach party we have on a daily

basis just to make sure small business owners know what's changing

in social media so they can focus on the things that

they're experts in and have a resource to come and figure

out how they might need to shift strategies.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate your time here.

I appreciate the extension to join your group.

Look at your courses.

You offer so much value.

Thank so much Sue.

And I hope everybody has a fantastic holiday season and that

everybody really gets the opportunity to end the year strong.

Here's to that.

Thank you,

Bobby, for challenging me this week,

I love having people push back on my thoughts and make

me consider something new.

How convincing was she?

Well, you need to go to my Instagram account at gift

biz unwrapped to see if I am now doing reels.

Did Bobby convince you to do something different up your game

online in some way?

If so,

tag me.

So I can see on tap for next week.

We're talking with a long time business owner who goes through

the evolution of her business,

but that's not why I'm going to tell you to listen.

She has some things to say about Pinterest that you don't

want to miss.

Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

please leave a rating and review.

That means the world to me and helps the show get

seen by more makers.

It's a great way to pay it forward and now be

safe and well.

And I'll see you again next week for another episode of

the gift biz unwrapped Podcast,

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reactions from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.