EPISODE 17 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: THE QUEEN OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON WHAT'S WORKING NOW
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Today, I'm here with one of my very earliest mentors, Rachel Pedersen. I first came across Rachel... When do you think you started SMU now, Rachel? Like three years ago?
Rachel Pedersen:
I think it was about three years ago, which is kind of crazy. It's adding up.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
I know. That's crazy. I came across Rachel because she actually had a program and a course, a membership that was really dedicated to people becoming social media managers. For me, I feel like it has been pivotal in me building the business I have today because of the systems and processes and knowledge I learned through this course. Because when I was at uni, I studied marketing, right, but I think they just introduced an internet marketing subject. I'm not that long out of uni and, but in terms of practical knowledge and things like that, we sort of didn't have any training. Coming across Rachel was an absolute godsend. Thank you for joining me today, Rachel. I would love for you to tell everyone a little bit more about yourself, SMU, your agency, all of that good stuff.
Rachel Pedersen:
For sure. I'm so excited to be here, and it's so good to connect because... Gosh, a lot contained in a short amount of time, can it?
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Rachel Pedersen:
Oh, it's crazy. I'm Rachel Pedersen. I am a social media manager, and I'm just kind of as someone who's obsessed with social media. I started full-time in my business just about... I think we're at three and a half years now. Yeah, about three and a half years. That's kind of crazy. My business grew pretty quickly. It was three years ago that I started my program, Social Media United, when people were asking like, "Can you show me how to do what you did?" And was like, "Yeah, absolutely." At first, I actually thought it would be business owners that would join, but it was mostly social media managers. I kind of embraced it. Meanwhile, I ran my agency the entire time. I still run my agency today.
Rachel Pedersen:
I love working with clients, and we've had some really awesome successes for our clients who are just seriously the coolest people in the world. We've helped their businesses to 10X, even at times 100X, which is very, very exciting. We've just kind of been doing our thing, and I've been transitioning to like YouTube and TikTok and branching into different social media platforms as my area of expertise.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Amazing. I saw that you posted something the other day that you were sort of moving away from focusing on Instagram and putting your efforts elsewhere. Why have you made that decision and what are you focusing on at the moment?
Rachel Pedersen:
Really good questions. Since the very beginning of Instagram, I've never been a huge fan of it, which was kind of weird. I always felt guilty saying that. It's not that I have a problem with Instagram, it's just never really been my platform. But because the nickname that some people gave me kind of stuck as "The Queen of Social Media," I felt a lot of pressure to stay on Instagram even once I was really over it. I moved away from posts. I've always loved Stories on Instagram, and so I was still using those and I still do message with people on the platform, but I'm not going to be posting anything else, at least not anytime in the near future. I didn't delete my account, but I put that final post that's like, "Hey, guys. I'm saying goodbye to posting on Instagram."
Rachel Pedersen:
I'm really moving towards YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, my blog, and I'm doing some stuff on other platforms too, but that's where I'm putting a lot of our long form content. I just have to say like I feel so free making that decision.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Interesting that you're saying that you're putting effort into a blog. Do you find blogs as still relevant with all the other sort of mediums we have today and video being so big?
Rachel Pedersen:
Oh, yeah. I definitely think so. I know that I read a lot of blogs. I started to kind of discover that no matter what happens, people like different mediums for absorbing content, and they like different mediums at different times. For example, my favorite way to absorb content is reading a book, but that doesn't always mean that I have time to sit down and read a book. Maybe I am driving somewhere, and I obviously can't read a book when I'm driving, so then I'd listen to Audible or a podcast or even a YouTube video without watching. But then there are also times where I'm like, "Oh, it would be really nice to see a YouTube video on this so that I can understand how they did that." But then there are still times where I don't have the ability to listen to something out loud.
Rachel Pedersen:
Maybe I'm in a conference or a meeting or at church or whatever and I want to read something without everyone hearing what I'm listening to, then I'm going to check out a blog. As I started to realize, oh my gosh, I absorb content all those different ways, I wanted to make my content available in podcast form, in written form. I'm working towards more of the printed forms, but people like content in different ways at different times.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, that makes sense. No, I get that. I'm such a reader, so I still appreciate a good blog. But yeah, just interesting to sort of hear your thoughts on that. With you being across so many platforms, do you sort of come up with one message or training or something along those lines and then repurpose the content for each platform or you're coming up with different bits and pieces? How's that working for you at the moment?
Rachel Pedersen:
Yeah, we've done different ways of doing things. One thing that I'm really loving is I've gotten into TikTok in a big way and that is one platform that has really challenged me because you cannot repurpose almost anything that you create on that platform. It doesn't make sense, and it doesn't make sense to put IG stories on TikTok. It also doesn't make sense to necessarily put TikTok videos anywhere else unless you're intentionally trying to draw eyeballs to TikTok. We've done a combination on the other platforms. We've done things where we've repurposed content and cross posted, and we've also done where we create content natively.
Rachel Pedersen:
We're going into a season where we're creating domino content from video that then is purposed for each platform natively with the same message, but then posted at different times. That's kind of what we're going to, but we tried a lot of different methods and I like them all as long as you're consistent.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, no, I love that. I think a lot of people sort of go, "Oh my gosh, I don't have enough ideas to be across all these platforms," but really it can come down to coming up with one theme or one message and then creating content that makes sense around that for each individual platform. I feel like that's what you're saying at the moment that you're focusing on and you're just posting that at different times, correct?
Rachel Pedersen:
Yep, exactly. You can be posting the same message on different platforms. You can even post the same message on all of the platforms at once, as long as it's not just copied and pasted. If it's created natively for different platforms. Because a tweet feels very different than a Facebook status, which feels very different than a post or an IG story, right? Like all of that feels different. As long as you're creating that content natively for the platform. You could be posting the same message, the same time on different platforms as long as it's not copied and pasted and it can still hit.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Absolutely. Do you know what? I have become the biggest TikTok addict ever, and I know that you're on a bit of a mission at the moment. You're looking to hit 100,000 followers, and I'm sure by the time this podcast episode is released that you're going to get there because you're what? 99.9 at the moment. Can you tell me how do you see... Because obviously it's a platform... For anyone that hasn't jumped on it, it is just so addictive. It's lighthearted. It's really entertaining. How do you see moving forward brands using this platform, and where does that sort of fit in in a marketing funnel?
Rachel Pedersen:
Really good question. Right before this call, I tipped over to 100K, which I was freaking out about. Thank you. It's like unbelievable to me how quickly that platform grew. I think I grew by like 40K followers over the last month, which just blows my mind. For me, I've used it in several different ways. I have directly generated leads from TikTok. I have cross-grown platforms from TikTok. For example, I've grown my YouTube, I should actually check and see what my most recent stats are, grown my YouTube by almost 2,000 subscribers in the last month since I started talking about my YouTube on TikTok. I've used it to generate leads for webinars. I've used it as like a top of funnel strategy. I've used it in so many different ways. I've generated sales.
Rachel Pedersen:
I've gotten clients from it. My favorite way is just to build a relationship and start the relationship funnel there, even if you don't necessarily see how it's going to turn into a sale for a little bit.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Fantastic. What is the biggest mistake or some big mistakes that you see a lot of small businesses making with social media?
Rachel Pedersen:
Ooh, good question. One of the bigger mistakes that I see businesses making with social media is making it all about them. The thing that is so interesting is, I remember when I was in middle school, my dad would always say, "There's this like fishbowl thing that every single person has. They think they're in a fishbowl and everyone is staring at them and judging them or having opinions." He's like, "But truth be told, every single person is living in their own fishbowl thinking the same thing about everyone else." That kind of always stuck with me. Once you realize that that's actually for the most part true as you get older, that every person is thinking about themselves and their life and their family and their plans and their goals and their dreams, it changes the way that you do social.
Rachel Pedersen:
You start to turn it into more of a dialogue or an honest conversation. That was huge for me is understanding that the fishbowl effect still is in play.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, absolutely. I really love that analogy. Okay. If you're a small business, you're service-based, what should these kind of businesses be doing on social media at the moment? What's really working that you're seeing for your clients?
Rachel Pedersen:
That's a good question. I don't work with as many small businesses as I used to in the past, but one thing that has really helped is making sure that every single one of my clients has a clear pathway to monetization and that they have a converting offer. That was transformational for our agency once we started checking for really, really great strong offers, that was literally night and day difference. Whereas in the past we had done social media for clients who maybe were just like, "Oh, we just want a presence, or we just want some management." It really turned things up for our agency and for like our case studies and results once we started-
Siri:
Could you please repeat it?
Rachel Pedersen:
Weird. I didn't even say anything to Siri and she just said I was talking to her. That's kind of creepy. That is so creepy.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
She's always listening.
Rachel Pedersen:
It gives me the chills. Now I want to turn my phone off. But we started making sure that our clients had converting offers that we could always be pumping full versus just building their email lists. That really helped me based on the way that I operate. That was helpful, but that's not necessarily the right fit for everyone.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
That completely makes sense. Are you able to give me an example with what you're referring to with these offers and how that would work with social media?
Rachel Pedersen:
Yeah, absolutely. For example, if I had a client that was like, "Oh, we do a once a year launch and we just kind of want a presence out there," that's a consistency game. It's long-term. Not that I don't like long-term, but it's a consistency thing. I really, really, really like the thrill of wins and feeling my client saying, "Oh my gosh, we just generated a record breaking amount of sales today." I like to make sure that there's always something that we can be promoting on social media in some way, even if it's just top of funnel for a launch that's coming next week. That was really huge for me just based on kind of learning more about how I work and how I want to work with my clients.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Got you. You're saying that you're happiest when there's always some sort of sales and promotion, something that you could sort of put ad spend behind to drive people to take action?
Rachel Pedersen:
Yeah, absolutely. Whether it's joining a webinar where there will be an awesome solution or maybe it's they're joining the email list and next week they're going to be offered a really cool course or an opportunity. I do well when there's a forward motion always kind of in play, whether it's weekly or all the time evergreen.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Fantastic. How do you approach the organic social media side of things versus your advertising side of things?
Rachel Pedersen:
Really good question. We change things up a little bit over the last year. We used to do strictly organic social media and then there was a season where we did strictly advertising. Right now we do kind of a combination, but I really, really like when there's a solid organic social media strategy in play topped off with Facebook ads. I think that there aren't enough agencies that do organic and paid together, and I just think that they're a beautiful kind of marriage. What's so cool is you can really decrease your top of funnel costs with digital advertising when you've got a solid organic social media strategy in place. We've been really working to try to marry those results together.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
I find it really challenging when you're working with a client whose sort of just starting out with their social media presence to then be running ads and all your audiences are completely cold. Whereas a dream client for me, for example, is someone that's got a really, really engaged social media following and wants to amplify things with ads and the results that you get from that are just absolutely incredible. Whereas it takes a lot longer if you don't have that warm audience to start with, to begin with.
Rachel Pedersen:
Yeah, absolutely. It's so challenging, and I actually stopped working with startups unless they have like a really long runway. That was a huge decision because a lot of opportunities come with startups, but I'll never forget, there was one client we worked with and we started getting purchases for... It was a skincare company and we started getting purchases. They were not happy that the purchases were coming from millennials. They said, "We've never seen ourselves as a millennial skincare company," I said, "But that's who's buying. I really think that we should double down on that." They were really unhappy with the fact that it was millennials that loved them. I think that that was the moment where I decided not to work with startups anymore.
Rachel Pedersen:
I wanted people who already had a track record of converting no matter how deep their pockets were. Because hypothetically, we all have a potential dream customer, but what happens when it's totally different than what you expected? Are you able to pivot and go with the flow?
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, we're the same. We've sort of moved away from working with startups as well because in my opinion, there's so many other factors happening with startups that are out of your control. Sorry. They mightn't have their systems and processes down pat. They mightn't have a proven offer. They might not know who their target audience is. If you're coming in just managing social media, that is way beyond your scope to go and work that out for them. Yeah, I get where you're coming from with that. All right. Well, I think that's all I had for you today, Rachel. I feel like you've-
Rachel Pedersen:
You had some really good questions.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
...a ton amazing little nuggets of wisdom there. If people want to find out more about you, whether that be the agency side of things or even if they're thinking about becoming a social media manager, highly recommend Rachel's membership by the way, guys, it has been amazing for my business, where can they find you, Rachel?
Rachel Pedersen:
For sure. Every single thing I have, whether it's all of my free content, I have a lot of trainings on YouTube and a ton of free resources, everything's available on my website every at rachelpedersen.com. It's all E's and a D in my last name.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Amazing. Thank you so much for your time, Rachel.
Rachel Pedersen:
Thank you so much for having me. This was a blast.