Telling the SMB Story, Leveraging User Generated Content, and Anna Joins the Show!

May 26, 2021

Transcript

Hello everyone. Good morning. Happy Wednesday. My name is Miles Bassett, and this is Ask Wildman.

Happy Wednesday. My name is Miles Bassett. This is Ask Wildman an open Q and A produced by Wildman Web Solutions. Me and my team jumped on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and maybe some other social media profiles later live streaming out to you to answer your questions about technology, marketing, advertising, business, or anything else that you want to add.

Ask us, we will do our best to answer you. So, if you have any questions about anything, please throw your questions in the comments below. If you’re catching this later, you’re not watching us live. You can still be part of the conversation by emailing us your questions that ask wild man@wildmanweb.com.

And we will get to those questions as they come in, or maybe we’ll hit on those next week. As we do this every week, Wednesdays at 11, make sure to tune in again, we’re doing this on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch, as of right now. So, pick your poison there and tune on Wednesdays at 11 to check out the light.

I didn’t want to take a little bit of time today and walk you guys through another awesome resource that we put that we put out there as we do this show to answer questions and to put more information out into our community. Especially since the pandemic over 2020 lots of businesses were trying to get online for the first time or leverage their online presence a little bit more.

And we realized we’re getting a lot of the same questions. So, we started doing this show, but we also started doing a couple of other things and trying to provide resources to our community and to the product community at large. So, if you haven’t checked it out already, please go to our website, wild man web.com.

We’ve got tons of helpful information here. Not only can you learn about our business, of course, about you can subscribe to our newsletter right here. Up here. You’ll see, we have an entire resources tab. This is all free. Awesome information for you. First of all, we’ve got our blog here. We publish articles very regularly.

Just had a new one put out by our brilliant content creator or queen of content to Anna about user generated content. So please check that out. We also have our live stream archives. That’s this show archived every week we put it up here on the website, so that if we happen to say something smart up here, you can go back and check it out.

Each one of these we are working on getting the text transcription up as well. So, you can just search through that text if that’s easier. We will have linked to our podcasts is that is published now anywhere that you listen to podcasts, you can now get this show in an audio only format.

And finally, the toolkit. This is a free suite of software that we offer out to anyone and everyone who wants to sign up helps you to get your business online and manage your business online. Everything from social media to reviews, to listings, to websites, there’s a ton of tools here to help you set yourself up online or take what you have and be more effective with it.

And again, it’s all free. So just go here and sign up. You just got to put in a little information about your business and it’ll get you all set up. All right. That is enough of the shameless plugs. I think today is a special episode of ask wild man to live. As unfortunately my partner Mike is out for the morning may be joining us later.

We’ll see. But instead, we’ve arranged a special treat to bring in another one of our teammates here to answer some of your questions and introduce herself a little bit. And that is Anna Mooradian. Hopefully you have me. Good morning, Anna. Hello. This is your introduction to the live streaming world here with wine.

She’s been with us for a while, but just been working behind the scenes. For some reason we decided to put Mike and I up front. I don’t know why that seems like a bad decision in hindsight, but we’re really happy to have you here. And wanted to take a little bit today. Get to know you.

So why don’t you just take a moment and introduce yourself and tell the people what you’re about? Okay. So obviously my name is Anna, as miles has said, I am the behind-the-scenes queen, as they like to say everything, content, anything on social media, that’s me. I don’t let them touch that.

That’s not their realm. Right before the show, me and miles were talking about this. I told him that anything social media I got covered. And he said that’s good. Cause he knows nothing. So yeah. Yeah. That’s absolutely true. She does our social media; she works with some of our clients helping to do some copywriting.

A lot of people don’t really think about it necessarily when they come to us. I don’t know a website project or we’re building on an app or something like that. They think about the technical aspect of it. They think about the aesthetic design of it, but they don’t, then they get a tripped up as soon as it comes to, oh, we have to write some actual text to go on this thing.

We have to create some copy. And not only write something but write something decent that tells our company’s story. And a lot of small business owners out there they know how to run their business, but they’re not necessarily writers or they don’t like talking about themselves. Or it’s just an uncomfortable thing to do, which I totally get.

I struggled with that as well. And so, you can jump in and help out with actually creating some of that content writing some beautiful stories about them. We’re helping them to just get their story out there or they just produce, I, I will just tell them, give me the word vomit, just let it fly, giving me everything that you have.

And then we will pair it down into something. Meaningful that, people are really going to appreciate reading and that’s a lot of what you do here. Yep. Yep. Writing about yourself as hard writing about someone else. That’s the easy part. Yeah. So, I guess we can take that here. Do you have any tips when it comes to small businesses writing about themselves?

Let’s just say they’re writing the about section on their website or something like that. What are what do you think is the key to success in creating just a little bit of, about me, about my company, telling my story effectively. I think the easiest thing when writing about yourself is just to start with the basics.

Who are you, what does your business do? Where are you located? Those sorts of questions? Because once you get those, you can fill in your story elsewhere. And I think that the basis is the hardest part for people.

Yup. They have all these ideas swirling around in their head and they don’t even think about the basis. So, I think that’s the best place to start. And also, it helps to get over writer’s block. I know that know when I’m sitting down to write an article for our site, or if I’m writing something for a client getting started is the hardest part here.

And I’m just sitting there thinking, I never actually put words on paper. So just starting with something super simple, like the, who, what, when, where why at least gets you writing something and usually leads people into saying something more profound. Some they didn’t even realize that they were going to say they didn’t plan on saying, and it just came out in the process for getting the, I don’t know, getting the ideas flowing, I think is a really important part of content.

Yeah, definitely. Cause like I said, you, your brain gets filled with so many different ideas that you can’t just reach up and grab one. It doesn’t work that way. You’re going to reach up and grab 30 at once and you’re still going to be lost. So, giving yourself a specific place to start as a really good idea.

All right. So, starting with the basics, giving yourself a specific place to start and then just letting it flow after that. I, that is really very much my writing style when I’m ever putting something together, it’s just, I know I can’t worry too much about it. The exact wording on everything.

If I get stuck in the little details, then I’ll lose my train of thought. I don’t know what I was saying. And the whole thing just comes to a halt, and I’ll come back to it for probably weeks after that, she knows she’s the one that has to put my articles into our newsletter or something. It’s much better.

Not worry about it, let it go, come back, and edit it later, which is where having someone like you is incredibly valuable. Someone that can take that the fresh point of view, fresh perspective, new set of eyes, and go back through something that I’ve read I’ve written or that a client has written does Polish up some things, find those things that, maybe didn’t land exactly.

And make it sound a little bit more professional. Yeah, definitely. A second set of eyes is always great, but even just, coming back a day later, a week later and just polishing it up because you’re going to think of things. I think of things when I’m in the shower all the time, I need to get like a waterproof notebook or something.

That will be good to go. Brilliant idea. We’re starting another side company now, shower notes. Yeah. So, I guess we’re veering off in the content writing and copywriting side of things, which really is your background, right? You were a school of journalism grad here at the university of Kansas.

Yep. So, I guess what can you talk a little bit about the shift, the similarities or the differences or the path that took you from journalism school to working in, in marketing and specifically for a small digital marketing agency like us? So, my background in journalism goes clear back to high school.

When I was in high school, I was the editor of our school newspaper. So had a really super-duper strong background in writing. And as I was going through college, I realized that. Didn’t want to corner myself into one box. And that’s where I fell in love with the marketing world, as you can dabble in so many different things at once and no, day’s the same, which is what I love.

Yeah. That’s, that’s very similar to some things that I’ve said working in in, in our industry, working with small businesses, you have to immerse yourself into whatever industry you’re working in. We can be working with a restaurant one day and a dentist, the next and the electrician the day after that, and then a small city government the day after that.

And it’s just a completely different world. And you have to learn a little bit about each one of those industries in order to effectively work with them. If we’re doing social posting for them, we’re creating social content. Then we really need to understand their business, their language, how they.

Prefer to deliver their message out there to communicate with their audience. And so, it’s unavoidable to really learn about all these different people in these different businesses, different industries. And it does, can keep the monotony at bay. There is none of that here. No, not at all.

One of, one of many perks that we get working with all these different businesses. I also really love working with small, very small businesses. It might not be the biggest or the best money decision on my behalf, but you go and work for fortune 500 companies and probably make a lot more.

But and these small businesses are really just there. There’s so much more interesting and there’s so much more real because it’s not, you don’t have the owner and then 500 degrees of separation all the way down to the last person worker who’s actually working there. You have the.

Probably there all day, every day, who has their hands in everything. I was just talking with a client yesterday about his business. He’s been in his business for a very long time and very much could have gotten out or gotten a GM or, started off pushing off some of these duties and responsibilities.

But he said, I couldn’t do that. I had to keep my hands in all this stuff. And not because I’m a control freak or anything, but because that’s how this business is staying alive. That’s why we’re doing so is because I do play a personal role in everything, every aspect of the business. So, I think there is a there, there is of course a balance between controlling everything and some sort of delegation.

Small businesses are really special because you do have those really involved people. You’ve got the owner that’s involved all day, every day, and then you’ve got the employees there that are just as dedicated to everything because they know the owner personally. There, there really is that personal connection there in all of these different businesses.

Definitely. And we can jump in and be an exhilarating part of those businesses. I know you’ve had this experience where, sometimes it feels like, we were working for a bunch of different, we’ve got a bunch of bosses out there, a bunch of different businesses that we’re working with and you’re working.

You’re like, oh yeah, I don’t work for a roofing company. What’s happening. I know sometimes I think I do but I guess that’s the good thing is, you build so many connections and you feel like you’re a part of those businesses’ teams aside from just someone they hired. Yeah. I feel like I could.

Any of our clients on the street and say, hey, how you doing? How’s the family like, not necessarily talk shop. And that’s pretty special. I think a lot of people don’t get that. So, we were very grateful to have that, but let’s get back to you. And your role here is that’s kind, kind of what I’m wanting to focus on, at least for the first part of the show.

And then this still is an open Q and a. So please, if you guys have any questions you want to jump in, throw your comments below. If you have some questions for Anna, again, she’s primarily responsible for writing for copy for content. She does a lot of social media work. She’s the one who puts out our newsletter every week, roughly.

We’re going to be a little late on that one today. Yeah, we have that’s okay. I think that’s, I think that’s my fault. I don’t know. We’re going to blame Mike for not being here. So that’s his fault. I love it when Mike’s out of the office, blame him for everything. Yeah. So, it looks like he’ll be joining here in a little bit.

I think he’s texting me. So, let’s spend the next 10 minutes blaming everything on him. And once he gets here, it’s just a secret between you and me. Oh, the whole internet.

Okay. So, let’s take a shift here over into social media which I know you said that’s, this is your bread and butter. This is where you live all day, every day. And while I know a lot about the inner workings of social media, I know a little bit more about the maybe how the algorithms are written coming from the software development side of things, no, I don’t exist in the social media world quite as much as a lot of people do.

And I definitely don’t have your kind of expertise. So, when we give you an opportunity to speak to our audience here, again, small businesses in the Lawrence community, do you have any tips for managing their social media effectively? I think a lot of them think of it as, just one more thing on their list of chores.

It’s not a fun thing. It’s not something they want to do. A lot of them don’t see it as a business development thing or as an investment in their business. It’s just this extra dumb thing that they’ve got to add on, or they’ve got to have someone do and they end up just phoning it in. So, I guess, do you have any tips for any small business owners out there that are managing their own social needs?

Yeah. So, I think one of the big things that a lot of people get concerned about when it comes to social media is that they have to be on everything. So, they, I think they have to be on Twitter, or they think they have to be on Facebook, Instagram, Tech-Talk LinkedIn, just all the things. And that is far from the truth.

So as a small business, you’re not going to have enough time to do everything. So, pick your favorite one to however many you’re actually enjoying and just focus on those to start with. For me, I think as a small business, one of the easiest ones to get started on is going to be Instagram. And Facebook is just way too large.

You don’t get as much engagement there, but with Instagram, you’re going to be able to build bigger connections with your audience. And that’s the main thing you want from social media is to connect, build, trust, all those sorts of things. It’s not going to be a platform where you’re going to be selling to people.

Think of it as a place to build your connections into grow that audience. And I think that’s where a lot of people get off track is that they try and push their products a little bit too much. But I think social media is more of a place where you want to play around, have a little bit of fun, spread some new information, educate people, those sorts of things.

And one thing, a lot of people also don’t do is create a strategy for social media is they’re just like, oh, I have this picture. Let me just throw it up and maybe it’ll do good. Maybe it won’t, I don’t really know, but you do need to get a little bit of a strategy. Otherwise, you’re going to be wasting your time and just throwing stuff up there.

That’s not going to work, unfortunately. So that’s a little bit I could probably go on for this for hours. So, if anybody has any more direct questions, that’d be great. Yeah. Please feel free to throw those in the comments here. You’ve got this. Now Mike and I have been harping on this point for a long time.

And that is to think of your small business, no matter what industry you’re in as a media company that helps you to, put good content out there and to engage with people. But we’ve probably fallen prey to this as well. I know a lot of people think of the media side of social media and they forget about the social side.

And that’s one thing that you’ve done a really good job at helping us pull the reins and really do better at being more social on our social media to engage with people. And that’s one of the things I think businesses of any size really should be focusing on a lot more.

We tend to think of this as. As a one-way street, the social media is just a megaphone to get our stuff out there. And we’re just shouting into the void and hoping that it lands on someone, or someone hears it, and it works. They come in and buy something. But it really should be a two-way street.

It’s all about engagement. It’s all about being social. And so, you’ve got to have that as your focus, when you’re putting your strategy together, when you’re putting your content together, you’re putting that stuff out there. Don’t just be shouting at the masses, be looking for some sort of conversation, some sort of engagement.

And that there’s a couple of sides to that. It’s not just about your posting. We focus a lot about posting because, that’s primarily the service that we provide here for small businesses and doing social posting on their behalf. But yeah. You can also reply to other people’s things.

You can share their stuff. If you don’t have any brilliant idea of what to say today, then go to your other friend in town that has a business. See, they posted something awesome. And just share that helps you to get your engagement that helps you to have another regular post in your account. And it also helps your friend and what is the saying?

A rising tide raises all ships kind of thing. That kind of engagement, that kind of social engagement event helps everyone. So yeah, I guess when you’re posting something, do so with engagement in mind, and then don’t just focus on posting and share, and follow and engage with other people in your community.

And they’ll probably do the same back to you and that’s going to be, that’s going to be a big win for everyone. Definitely. And rule of thumb goes that you should be engaging with other accounts at least 10 minutes of your day, which isn’t a lot, but can seem like a lot, especially to a small business owner, like 10 minutes.

I could be doing something else with those 10 minutes of my day. But if you really want to create a strategy and you want to grow those accounts, you need to take the time to go through, engage with others, and then another tip to get engagement on your own posts. Super simple. Just throw a question in the bottom of your comments.

It can be any sort of question you can be like, what’s your favorite color? What’d you eat for breakfast today? Anything, and people will comment and then you can like those comments reply to those comments. And now you’ve started this whole big engagement on just one post. Let’s preface that with, if it can be relevant, then go for that first

phase. If there’s absolutely nothing out there, find out what your audience say for breakfast. I guess that’s. That’s a start. But I think this kind of does come back to what we were talking about with copywriting. Just getting started is the trick. You said 10 minutes a day. I think that 10 minutes a day would be just so easy.

As soon as you get started. As soon as you pick up your phone, you open up Instagram or whatever it is, those 10 minutes are going to fly by. In fact, you’re probably going to have to keep yourself from staying on there too long, because it’s easy to get distracted, easily turned into 30, could easily do an hour.

Definitely understand. Not starting that. Especially as someone, I’m an, I’m working in front of a screen all day, so it’s that’s one thing. But if you aren’t someone who’s doing that. If you’re in a business, that’s a little bit different. You’re in the restaurant business, you’re in the construction business, maybe you’re out and about doing stuff.

Picking up your phone and just browsing through social media. Part of your day unless you’re trying to screw off and not to work. So really making that intentional and saying, okay, I am going to do this. I’m going to open my phone. I’m going to open up Instagram specifically with this goal in mind of engaging with my business page.

And that can be posting something that can be commenting on a fellow business or sharing something, whatever it is, take 10 minutes of your time and make that happen. But I think once you get going on it, it’s going to be easy. And so that, and that does lead into another tip that I usually give out.

And I want to see what maybe what you think of this somebody that makes regular social posting easier for business owners who aren’t, otherwise, super focused on this is scheduling stuff out. So, there’s a lot of tools out there to help you do this. There’s some that are built into the platform.

Some third-party stuff we happen to have one. So, I might be a little biased on that one. But it allows you to post or to schedule your posts out into the future so that, maybe if this really isn’t your thing, you really dislike working on social media, then you just cut out an hour on your Sunday afternoon or something.

You’re going to sit down at your laptop and you’re going to create your social posts for the week. I think that it is better to engage with things in real time. And you’re more likely to get real engagement that way. I would rather use schedule everything out for the week than do nothing. And doing that kind of future scheduling, at least for some of your posts really allows you to do something more regularly.

You’re posting at least one thing a day or one every two days or whatever the schedule is for you. It’s totally up to you. And then maybe throughout the week, you’re engaging in a more organic way. In addition to your scheduled posts that you put together on Sunday. That for me, seems to help a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t post anything.

Cause they just, they really don’t want to do it. They’re not going to make themselves do it, but if they just sit down and force themselves to work on it for a little bit, once a week, that’s a lot easier than, allocating half an hour every day to this thing that you hate. Yeah. Scheduling. If you are the kind of person that hates social media scheduling is going to be your best bet because I don’t.

I love social media. So, I can’t be the person that’s yep, Nope, schedule everything. I don’t want to touch it, but I know people that are that way in scheduling definitely helps them. Because like you said, you just sit down for an hour of your time, get it all done out of the way. I don’t have to look at it anymore.

And then you’ll, I think you’ll be more likely to engage on social media that way, because then you’re not worried about, I have to post this and I don’t want to do it and you’re dragging your feet, but then you’re like, oh, I just have to go on. And like some stuff, comment on people’s stuff. Okay.

That’s fine. I’ll do that all day. So that’s kind of my 2 cents on that. And the only thing that I would have to say about scheduling that you have to be careful with above is that some things on like Instagram, you can’t schedule. So, if you’re going to make a carousel post, which is the one where you slide through.

You get up to 10 slides, most scheduled posters won’t schedule that kind of content because I don’t really know why. Maybe that’s a mile’s question. Do you know why they do that? There’s a couple of answers, but the big one is that the social media companies want you to actually be on their platform.

They don’t, they make their money from people actually existing on their platform and seeing advertising events and seeing the content on the platform. And so honestly, they want to do everything they can to keep you off of these third-party services that allow you to engage with the platform without seeing the platform itself.

And yeah, they’ll, they’re just being intentionally limiting as to what they gave, they give access to. It was like I said earlier, if you are going on to Instagram, for example, in your scheduling or you’re putting up a post for your business, you are relatively likely to. See something else by one of your friends or a fellow business or something.

And then before, it you’re scrolling for the next hour and a half, and you’ve just invested a ton of content and made them a bunch of money. So ultimately that’s, they’re trying to get eyeballs on their platform and it’s a give and take for them where these schedulers make it easier for people to produce content.

So, they want people to do that, but they want people to do that even more on their actual on the native card. So that does come into a couple of tips on just posting. If you can go to the platform itself and post something, one, you’re going to have more advanced capabilities. Like those slide posts on Instagram, too, you’re going to be able to get native content uploaded.

This is don’t share a YouTube video on Facebook, upload the video to Facebook. They’re going to prefer that kind of comment. And overall, if you’re engaging with a platform in the platform, that platform is going to like you better and probably promote your posts and give you more engagement.

Yep. It’s all about the money for them. So, you got to play their game.

Okay. I’ll use this, to just remind everyone here, if you do want to jump in, or if you want to ask Anna anything, you can comment below on any of the platforms that we’re currently live streaming to, and you can also email your questions to ask while I’m in a while. My web.com. I think that currently goes to me, but I’ll make sure that NSC those questions as well.

And we’ll make sure to get those either. We’ll just email you back on that, or we’ll hit that next week as we do this show every Wednesday at 11 live streaming to Facebook, YouTube, and now our Twitch account. If that’s you.

Okay, so we’ve gone over content writing. We’ve got over social media. I did want to give you a chance to talk about, I plugged this early in in the episode here, your new article you actually wrote and posted to our website about user-generated content. I guess that’s a nice evolution from just talking about social media posts.

Another way that you can create awesome content, really engaging content for your business is by not creating it yourself. You pass it off to your audience in one way or another, and that is user generated content. I wanted to give you a chance to talk about your new article. Maybe go over some of the points here.

But if you guys want to see the article itself, just go to web.com. Check out our blog section. It’s the last one. Yeah. So, user generated content is really awesome because it will save you so much time. You don’t have to create anything. So, say you’re like a boutique shop and somebody comes and buys a cute dress and then they go home, and they take a picture of themselves wearing the cute dress, tag you in it.

Now you have user-generated content and a big bonus about user-generated content is that people actually prefer it over content that you’ve produced yourself. It’s another thing that builds trust between you and your audience. So, take this as an example. So, your mom tells you something you’re probably going to believe your mom more than you’re going to believe a company that said the exact same thing two weeks ago.

Yeah, so that’s probably, I only say that because she might be watching, and I find that funny. That’s a good one. That’s a good one. Okay. But, yeah, so that’s the biggest bonus of user-generated content. So pretty much it’s a time-saver it builds trust between you and your audience. And if you go to that article, there’s a whole bunch of statistics in there that I don’t remember because there’s so many, and I don’t want to get the message, but yes.

Yeah. We’ve got 81% of consumers saying they need to trust a brand before making any kind of purchase. 92% of people trust, recommendations from people that they know. So that’s what you were saying there. It’s I’m going to weigh a recommendation from a friend or a family member, much higher than the business themselves saying, hey, my product’s great because of course, they’re going to say that,

Oh, she is watching. Hi. Good. 79% of people say that user generated content, highly impacts their purchasing decisions. 60% of consumers say content from friends and family influence their buying decisions. So, these are all really high numbers here about people engaging with user generated content.

And again, just defining this is your audience, creating content about your business, your product, your service for you and posting it. You gave that dress example, which I think was awesome. But I think you also glossed over the hardest part there. You said someone comes into your shop, they buy the cute dress.

They go home, they take a picture of the cute dress. They post it, but then you said that they tag you. And so, I think that’s the kicker here is how do you get your audience to engage with you that way in a way that’s. Spammy or grabbing or anything that’s really authentic that makes them want to tag you rather than just posting the picture of them when their new cute dress.

Yeah. So, I think obviously one way that you could do it is to incentivize people when they come in and they buy something, you can give them a little card that says, hey, if you tag us in your socials, we’ll give you 10% off. Next time you’re in the store or say, if you’re an online, only business, then you send in a little, thank you card with each package that says, hey, can you please tag us also incentivize maybe not incentivize and just get the word out there that we will share your content if you produce it.

And I think I also talked about that in the article about how we are inherently the type of people to want that gratification. We want people to share our stuff because we made it, we want the world to see that. So, I think as long as you get the word out there Hey, we are sharing user-generated content.

If you tag us in something, we will share it. People are going to do it. Yeah. I think that there’s probably a decent amount of people that will just do it if you ask nicely, so maybe just try that don’t shy away from just asking. And incentives are really great. Maybe a discount, maybe you get entered for a drawing or something like that, but you got to be careful with that.

And this did not seem like I said, spammy or something like that. It’s very easy to come across the wrong way. If you are actively incentivizing that kind of thing, someone just organically doing it is obviously the best case there. So, you can, there are some other. I don’t know, more tactful ways where you can have like your own hashtag or your own sort of movement around it, where it’s cool to have your product.

And people then want to say that they got something from you. That’s a little bit harder to craft, but that’s a, that’d be a really cool way to do it. And then, this also ties into more like influencer marketing. It doesn’t have to just be random average, Joe that came into your business.

This encompasses things like, I don’t know, unboxing videos. You’ve seen people doing that where people will send out a free version of their product to someone who makes these videos just so that they will make a video about that product and say good things about it. Especially if you have a really, you have a lot of confidence in your product, that you have the best stuff out there, then that can be a really good way to do it.

You’re going to get a good video; you’re going to get a good review and you’re going to get in front of this person. Audience. So that’s another part of user generated content that I think, I don’t know, maybe that should be a whole separate conversation, but I do want to give someone else a chance to weigh in on this as he’s been sitting, ever so patiently in the waiting room wanted to bring in Mike Hannah late here.

Good morning. How are you all doing today? Yeah, sorry. I’m I’ve been Mia, but I’m better late than never. I’ve been here in reviews that this is the best show that wild man has ever done. So, I thought maybe I should just stay out of it cause I didn’t want to really, I figured what the hell we’ll jump in and see if we can mess things up.

But I just listened to the last few minutes of the conversation and really important stuff. I’ll just. Throw in one little quick tidbit here and then get you, let you guys get back to it. But I think one reason why user generated content is so important or so effective really is because the way that it it’s psychologically plays with people that are particularly if they’re in a certain group and I use that word very loosely, or a certain audience as we call them in marketing or a tribe, so to speak.

And this goes back to the couple we’ve talked about before on the show cognitive biases, and there’s a lot of cognitive biases out there, but there’s, there’s been identified 25 main cognitive biases that basically we all suffer from in different ways, and it leads us to make skewed decisions.

And one of them is called an ingroup bias, which basically means that if somebody who I identify. As a member of the same group, I am. Let’s just take chief’s fans for example. Okay. So, if I say I’m a chief’s fan, and then I see something that is generated from other chiefs’ fans. I have a hardwired bias in my brain to believe what they say to cheer on what they say to share what they say to engage with what they say.

Much more than somebody who’s in a group that I don’t identify with. If it’s like a dolphin’s fan generating content, I’m probably going to be like, oh, I don’t know. I’m going to be a lot more like skeptical and objective about it than if it’s somebody who is in my own group, objectivity usually goes right out the window and we come become really subjective.

The, you think about group think, and that whole concept of what happens. Just forget about sales marketing for a minute, just on a psychological level. That’s, what’s happening a lot of times when we’re doing a really good user generated content is we’re leveraging that in-group cognitive bias to get somebody, to take our messaging and really subjectively be like, yes, I’m all in about this.

And remember, most buying decisions are made from an emotional standpoint and then we rationalize it later. And so, it can be a really effective tool, not going back to the marketing side of it. We use these things for good and not evil. And we get people to come over to our side or to be believers in our product or services that we know is going to help them in the end.

That’s a way that we can use gender user-generated content to create really powerful and meaningful connections with certain segments of audiences.

Yeah. So that’s what this article is that we were talking about here and article about user-generated content. It’s incredibly powerful and I guess more tying into our previous conversation about social media. We were talking about business owners who don’t necessarily like engaging with social media, or maybe that isn’t their thing, but they’re not to the place where they can.

Hire someone specifically to do this or hire out an agency or they’re trying to post out there. They’re trying to manage their selves online, but this just is not their space. User-generated content is a really awesome way to outsource this to your audience. If you make one or two smart plays, then all of a sudden you have your audience, your customer base, creating your content for you in a more engaging, more authentic, and more effective way than you could ever do.

Even if you put all of your time and energy into creating the best content you could, most likely you’re not going to touch user generated content. That’s just gold on social media. Anything that you can do to engage with people, I guess that ties back into our previous point for that. Yeah, not just media, but it is social media.

It’s made for people. Engage with people any way you can. And this also really ties into something. We talk about a lot with the 12 causes of advertising failure, right? From Roy Williams, the wizard of ads is, he talks about a lot of times how we make unsubstantiated claims.

And, I say I’m the best I have the best burgers in town. But that doesn’t mean anything. And if in people, usually they, they think it’s a little bit disingenuous and it may actually turn them off. But if I can get somebody else to talk about me, to talk about what I do to talk about my business category, my services, my products, they’re going to believe what somebody else says about me or my products or my industry, much more than what I say.

And again, it’s just a really great way, even if you are putting out your own content, mix, some of this stuff in, because it’s going to lead so much more credibility to your messaging and what you’re telling your eyes. You can get third-party independent people to back up what you’re saying, or just cheerleaders that are on your team.

Those work too, if it’s an impartial third-party contributor that’s even better, but it could just be people that, we talk about user generated reviews all the time and stuff like that. That’s a different kind of user generated content, but something similar to what I’m getting at.

Yeah. And an often very over under leveraged version of content is those reviews and recommendations. If I see that someone, they Facebook will actually promote this here. If I see a business on Facebook, I see a business page. Then one of the first things I see is one of my friends recommends this, or one of my friends likes this and that’s immediately going to grant it some authenticity.

Cause we see so many ads all day, every day we see so many businesses, we have so much exposure to so much crap online that anything that you can do to stand out is going to be, it’s going to be worth it for you. And when I see something like that’s tying it to something personal a friend of mine vouches for this business or likes this business or is engaged in this business in some way that immediately puts them in a whole other category.

In my mind. I don’t know if that’s part of that tribal affinity that you were talking about or, it’s just granting them some sort of I don’t know, a better space here in my mind. Some sort of. Authority, but regardless I’m much more likely to engage with that business. So, if you can find a way to get people to engage with you, then that’s a whole other benefit, even if it’s just, liking your page or leaving you a nice recommendation or review on Facebook, people are going to see.

Yeah.

So, we’ve got co articles with this on our website here. So, if you want to learn more about it, please go to Whiteman, web.com and check out our blog under the resources tab. We’ve got this user-generated content article. We’ve got one on repurposing content is one thing that I talk about a lot, especially for business owners who don’t have a lot of time to create the amount of content that they probably should be putting out there.

I know Anna wrote one about evergreen content, these single pieces that you can put out there and just continually use month over month, year, over year, even something that’s going to have that kind of longevity so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you’re putting something out.

And tons of other really awesome tips. Check out our resources tab there. If you want to learn more about this or expand this discussion, otherwise if you have questions or you want us to take a deeper dive into any of this as this is our first time going triple a split screen here in our livestream you’ve got more resources, more people that ask than ever.

Please throw your questions in the comments below or email us ask wild man@wildmanweb.com. And that address is scrolling below all of us here if you need it. Okay. Miles maybe you guys already talked about this too, one layer that we could throw on top of this is mix. What am I trying to say?

Creating content? Nobody knows, creating content. Leverages out user content through engagement. So, I make a piece of content and that inspires, or throughout maybe I’m running a contest or something like that. And people have to engage or create their own content in response to that, or as a way to engage with that content.

And that can be a way that we cannot only, produce evergreen content, but we can also do what we talk about a lot of times where we have one central hub of content production that then we create spokes out of that we can siphon off into all kinds of different channels and all kinds of different content pieces for lack of a better term.

And like for example, that’s what we do here. It’s a show, right? Are we creating one long piece of content, then we can siphon off into other pieces of content as well? And so, if you then create a component in that where you’re also getting user generated feedback, even if it’s just something as simple as a review you’re tying this all into a content creation system that lets you do more with less.

And so, it’s perfect for small businesses, solo entrepreneurs, and people like that. And it’s all part of the working smarter, not harder strategies that we’re trying to put out there. So, we always believe in not everyone has infinite time or patients for social media. So yeah, lots of good information there.

We did briefly talk about leverage. Some sort of incentive structure to get people to interact with you or to create some sort of user generated content, giving them some sort of discount or entering them into a drawing or something like that. But I threw out one morning there that it’s really easy to get very salesy or spammy with that.

Do you have any sort of tips on trying to ask people to engage without asking them to engage, asking them to do something here without seeming like you’re being pushy or salesy? I find that’s a really difficult balance to, to hit properly. You’re asking me this, are you asking me? I was asking you, but anyone can drop in here.

Okay. I probably have a much higher threshold for salesy. You do, or most people miles. So, I don’t know, maybe I’ve not I don’t have the greatest self-awareness on this, to me, it’s not that hard at all. Just don’t be, it’s like when people ask me, like, how do I send out an email about being tested?

I’m like, don’t spam them, provide value, right? It’s like reverse engineer. What they want reverse engineer. What do they want to engage about? What do they want to talk about? What do they want to share? What do they want to create? And then put that in front of him and forget about what we want and focus on what they want.

And then we become facilitators. And so, then I’m not, I don’t have to sell anybody. I don’t have to ask anybody to do anything. I’m just giving them an opportunity to do what they already want. Do you know I don’t mind getting, I don’t mind ask someone, asking me to buy something? If I wanted to buy that thing already.

If I walked over, you are right now and I hit and I just put a hundred-dollar bill out to you like this, what I have to ask you to take it, he’d be like, got any more of those. Yeah. So, it’s the same thing, right? It’s the same thing. We’re producing a piece of content or anything else it’s put on the plate, what they want to eat, and you’re not going to have to ask them to finish their plate.

They’re going to be coming back, being like, hey, can I get some.

Yeah. You think about it like that, yeah, that’s a good tact is just a sort of reverse engineering, what the customer or what the audience actually wants here and then just handing them that, it’s not family, then it’s not salesy. Even if it is, they don’t mind it necessarily.

Okay. It’s like we talk when we talk about our sales process, sometimes, we talk about the 12-inch ruler, and we use that as an example of, if I’m doing a sales presentation or whatever, I’m just putting out content. 10% of it should be about providing value to the end-user, educating them, entertaining them, informing them 2% of it should be about actually closing a sale or two inches of it.

Sorry. Yeah. On the 12-inch ruler. So same idea here if we’re having to sell people stuff. We need to back up and we need to like, think about what the hell are we putting in front of these people to begin with? If you have to now keep in mind, most people are so negative that they’re going to have to say no seven to 17 times.

But we can get no’s without even having to ask people, hey, do you want to buy this? And this gets into a deeper, sales training conversation that maybe I’m going down a little bit of rabbit hole on, but I think it’s somewhat relevant to this conversation about putting out content in that is, if you put it out in a way that is not salesy, but as value-based, you can get people to get through those objections and get through those no’s and say yes, without ever saying the words, do you want to buy this?

If I’m showing you a product or service and I’m asking you questions, hey, would you use this? Do you think this would make your day easier? Do you think that this would make your staff more efficient? And you’re saying, yes, you can see it, I’m already getting all those things out of the way.

I’m not asking you to buy anything with those questions. I’m asking you, is this something that’s actually going to provide value for you? And we’re trying to get down to the root of, will this solve your problem, right? And that’s what really good sales all, it’s all it should be. And at the very end, if you have to really ask somebody to buy something, you probably didn’t really do a good job building up a lot of value.

Same thing with, if they’re focused on price, like we talked about last week, cause somebody who’s only focused on price, then we have not done enough. Good of a job of building up the value of whatever that product or service is. Because if we’ve done our job on that end, they should be asking us.

How do we pay this? And so, if we do a really good job presenting our products and services through our content, through our sales and through our messaging, that should happen before we ever get to the point where we have to ask them to buy. Now, some people aren’t trained enough to know what a tell is or what a buying question is, right?

You have to recognize that, and you have to train your staff and everything. But if you can unleash those things and get people to ask you the buying questions, you’re never spamming anybody. You’re never being salesy. You’re never doing a hard sale, or even sometimes you’re never even asking somebody to buy you are simply facilitating them to get what they want to solve the problem to help them.

And that’s what really good sales is, some people, this is where you have to also understand the person that you’re dealing with is that some people will get all the way to the edge. Like it’s like you brought the horse all the way to the river, but you have to force them to drink.

And Colin steak that salespeople make is they actually don’t ask them for the sale. So, I know it was a little bit of a dichotomy there, there’s a fine line there between where you have to say, hey, are you ready to do this? And being salesy and pushing somebody into a sale, you never want to sell somebody something that they’re not convinced that they want to buy.

But some people, even after they’re convinced that they, they want to buy something, they need a little bit of assistance. They need a little bit of a handholding to actually get them over to the other side of, signing it and paying for it. And so that’s what all goes into this mile to answer your question of how we do not be salesy, but still.

I think you just got to reverse engineer what they want and give it to him. I think it all comes back to the conversation that we were having yesterday. And you ended up saying good marketing, good. The services that we provide for people, good marketing is either going to grow your business exponentially or put you out of business faster.

And that all comes back to how good is your actual product. If you are offering a good product or good service and you a hundred percent believe in that product or service, and you’re going up and telling someone about it, you shouldn’t have to sell them on anything. You just put the product in front of them, and then they ask you how to buy it.

That is the best-case scenario for any kind of sales game, whether you’re having an in-person connection, or you are engaging with someone over social media or via email, or even indirectly through your website or something like that. Ultimately, it’s all about. Having a good product believe in that, believing in that product and then presenting that product in the most effective way possible.

And that’s your selling process? I think that’s a pretty positive note to end on here with we’re coming up on the hour. I know we have another meeting coming up at noon. So, I want to wind everything down here and give you two, an opportunity to throw in any closing comments.

Anna is your first time here on the live stream. Thank you for joining me this morning. I really appreciate it. And I hope that everyone enjoyed getting a little bit of insight into the background operations of our company here and some not Mike and I faces probably really appreciated by anyone.

Who’s actually watching this and not on audio only. So, Anna, do you have any closing comments you want to throw out to them? I don’t think so but thank you for having me on this morning. Thanks for joining us and offering a non-bearded face here. I promise it’s not just us. There are other people here.

She exists. She’s not a myth, but he is a legend. Thanks. All right, Mike, anything on your side before we close out for the day. Oh, just I’m sure you guys probably nailed it and put several bows on top of all this before I got here, but I’ll just have one more, 2 cents on top of the pile in case there’s not enough pennies in the fountain yet.

And that is, when we’re thinking about. Users. I, it, we got to get a better word than that, but let’s say audience, when we’re thinking about our audience and how we can get more from them and more feedback, wrong, and more engagement and content from them, let’s always just remember the rule that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

And one of our greatest assets is listening to our audience and listening to our customer and listening to our end users and in consumers, and really learning as much as we possibly can from them, because that’s what we’re going to get. All of our best ideas for content first for new services, for new products, for, evolving the business for growing.

It’s always going to come from listening to what they want, what they need and how we can solve their problems. And so, the more we actively listen and really take it to heart and then come up with action steps to achieve what they want, the better we’re going to be in the long run. I’ll just add that in.

Thanks for letting me come in and chime in at the end guys. I appreciate you holding down the Fort for me. Okay, awesome. Yeah. And it’s always fun to hear your 2 cents and let you go down some rabbit holes. It’s usually interesting wherever it goes. We know we never know at the top of things, but usually a good direction.

And it was speaking of listening here, we do want to hear from you out there watching the show. If you have anything, any questions that you want to throw in there, please throw that in the comments below, or email us, ask why my web.com. And we will we take that that feedback to heart and use that to inform what we talk about every week.

Please reach out. And then if you think that this information is useful or providing good resource, or if you know anyone that you think would benefit from this information, please give us a share, follow, how social media works. We’ve been talking about it for the last hour here, engage with us and allow us to reach more people, answer some more questions and be a better resource to our community.

So really appreciate it. But that is it for today. Thanks Mike. Thanks Ana. And we’ll be back next Wednesday at 11. See you then. Yeah.

 

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