Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign hi there and welcome back to the Confessions in the Home Office podcast. I'm your host, Wendy Hill, and today I am answering five of the most frequently asked social media strategy questions that I get from colleagues and clients and sometimes through social media and everywhere. So I thought through these and I think these five will help you get some traction with your social media. So let's get started.
[00:00:36] The first question is, with platforms constantly shifting their algorithms, how can businesses stay visible without paying for ads every time?
[00:00:45] And I was out with some friends that also have marketing and PR businesses last week and we kept talking about the algorithm, the algorithm. And it gets old saying it. But algorithms are really like that friend who always says they're five minutes away when you're going to meet for coffee, but you know it's going to be 30 minutes.
[00:01:04] And just when you think you figured them out, they show up early.
[00:01:08] But here's the constant Platforms want people to stay engaged. If your content sparks conversations, saves and shares, you're always going to have an advantage.
[00:01:18] I had a client who always wanted to post promos, buy this, buy today, shop now, check out our products.
[00:01:27] And their reach just kept tanking.
[00:01:30] So we flipped the script and started sharing short stories.
[00:01:34] Why they made the product kind of behind the scenes moments, lessons from mistakes they had made and engagement skyrocketed. People were commenting, sharing and saving and part of it is people like to see behind the scenes and people want to see that companies are real. So the algorithm noticed and suddenly they had organic reach again and they didn't have to spend any ad dollars. So the lesson is you don't always, you don't have to hack the algorithm, you just have to create content worth talking about and you just need to show up consistently.
[00:02:08] So here's the second question. What role will AI generated content play in social media marketing? And how do we balance automation with being authentic?
[00:02:19] So AI is everywhere. And I will assume that most of you that are listening to this have played with an AI tool like Claude or ChatGPT, perplexity Gemini. One of those AI is helping people draft captions, helping them edit videos, helping them generate whole campaign ideas.
[00:02:37] But does that mean we should just hand over the keys to AI? I don't think so.
[00:02:43] I like to use AI like I would use a really sharp intern.
[00:02:48] They can brainstorm, it can draft things, it can speed things up when you're really tired, it can give you some more ideas, but you have to review and you have to put your personal touch on it.
[00:02:58] One business owner I know was Just using AI for everything. They were cranking out posts constantly, just pages and pages of stuff, copy paste, copy paste. Everything started to sound the same.
[00:03:10] And again, engagement starts to tank. So when they started putting in personal stories, behind the scenes challenges, funny moments showed the people of the company, soon the audience was back.
[00:03:25] And that's where the authenticity lives. AI can help you show up more often, but your voice, your stories, your perspective, that's what makes people trust you.
[00:03:34] So another thing is you have to really watch what AI gives you. AI can make mistakes and it will say that at the bottom of the screen.
[00:03:42] And when it tells you it can make mistakes, believe it. Don't think that's just a disclaimer for them to cover themselves.
[00:03:48] I put in some content months ago, just try to get some variations of things. And it gave me content for one client. I had and jumped and started acting as if I was talking about another client. Different phone numbers, emails, everything scared me to death. So I pulled way back after that. I know some of the tools have had to upgrade since then, but you need to watch it and read everything, edit everything, don't just do a copy paste.
[00:04:18] And people can tell when you're using AI. There's long dashes, let's dive in.
[00:04:25] There's all kinds of phrases. You probably should go out and Google it, get rid of those. If you're using AI content, swap them out or tell AI not to use them.
[00:04:34] So here's question number three. Is it better to go all in on one social platform or spread your content across several social platforms?
[00:04:42] So I hear this, I get this question all the time. So should I spread, spread it out so I can be seen everywhere. Should I double down on one?
[00:04:49] I say focus beats frenzy. Some people will say just use one, one or two.
[00:04:57] So I've had clients that wanted me to post everywhere. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, you name it.
[00:05:04] I'm getting burned out. They're getting burned out. Content's just, it's getting crazy. There's just not a lot of traction. So we decided to pull back and use Instagram and LinkedIn for 90 days. We did more consistent posting, more engagement, and it really helped build momentum.
[00:05:23] And then we started repurposing for Facebook.
[00:05:27] So think of it like building a strong home base before you open new locations. You wouldn't open up three restaurants at once. Start with one, do really well, go from there. You're going to get more results. If you go deep on one platform and, and come up with a system and figure that out and then you can take it and replicate it with tweaks on another one. Don't be scattered.
[00:05:50] So question number four is how do you measure the real ROI of social media now that vanity metrics, likes and follows matter less than engagement and conversions.
[00:06:00] So this is where a lot of businesses will get tripped up. They see a post with 10,000 likes and they think it must be successful. But likes don't pay your bills.
[00:06:09] I work with a law firm that they don't get a ton of likes on their post. People see it and it just doesn't look that impressive. But they get calls, they get emails, they get, they get people booked in for appointments, they get clients.
[00:06:26] So what matters more, all those likes or all the.
[00:06:31] All the money they were able to build those clients.
[00:06:33] So ROI is about action. If your goal is awareness, keep looking at reach and shares. If it's leads, look at clicks and DMs. If it's sales, I want you to track conversions.
[00:06:45] Success is not about applause anymore. And hey, we got the most likes. It's about whether your content moves people closer to working with you.
[00:06:53] Now here's the fifth question. What's the smartest way to repurpose content across platforms like TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, without it feeling like copy paste? Copy paste? Repurposing isn't copy paste. You just have to take it and kind of translate it from one platform to the other. I will say sometimes it's okay to put things on more than one platform. It just kind of depends on the post.
[00:07:17] But each platform kind of has its own culture. TikTok wants quick things, small clips. LinkedIn's more professional, thoughtful, you can have longer posts. Instagram's kind of in the middle, needs to be relatable, but it still needs to be polished.
[00:07:32] So here's an example of how you could repurpose. You could take a video about a mistakes in a client's field, or on TikTok you could turn it into a small clip. On LinkedIn, you could turn it into a carousel with tips. On LinkedIn, I'm sorry, on Instagram you could put it on a re as a reel and I would use like a trending audio with that, put some text overlays.
[00:07:53] So that's three platforms, three formats.
[00:07:57] Audiences on each platform thought it was new and they thought it was great, even though it all came from one piece of content.
[00:08:04] So that's the beauty of repurposing content. You stretch your ideas further, but you keep them relevant to each vibe that the platform has.
[00:08:12] So those are the five biggest social media questions I'm asked for now, and those are my best answers from working with clients and working on my own social media.
[00:08:22] So if this episode gets you thinking, I'd love for you to send me a message. I'd love to talk to you.
[00:08:27] So thanks for spending this time with me here on Confessions in the Home Office. If you found this helpful, share it with a friend, leave a quick review that really helps more than you know. And I'll be back next week with more strategies and stories from the Home Office. So until then, keep showing up, keep experimenting, and keep building momentum.
