Patty Farmer: 00:00:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of The Marketing, Media & Money Podcast. I'm so excited that you're here. We're going to talk about one of my favorite topics. Today, I have a question for you. Is your social media strategy falling flat or just not delivering the results you need? Today we will reveal the secrets behind creating a strategy that works from reviving dead channels, scaling your efforts without burnout, and what marketing trends can you capitalize on right now to stay ahead of the curve and your competition? So let me tell you a little bit about our guest today. Her name is pig Fitzpatrick, and she is a social media powerhouse. She has co authored the art of social media power tips for power users with Kai Kawasaki, and she's now debuting her solo book, The Art of small business. Social media a blueprint for marketing success, and as the first head of social strategy for Canva peg knows social media creativity and community and as the secret weapon that big brands keep from their competitors, she has put into practice everything she teaches that's always nice, and has pretested all the social media tips and engagement strategies to build successful platforms for her clients and herself. She's been awarded a Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship medal from entrepreneur Damon John, and she's been featured on NPR time. Bloomberg Business and E so welcome pig. I'm so excited to have him here today.

Patty Farmer: 00:01:33

Thank you for having me. What an intro. Thank you so much.

Patty Farmer: 00:01:38

I'm really excited. So let's just dive in, because I have to tell you, I feel like this is really a topic. There are so many things that we hear about social media strategy, right? And every single person you talk to is going to tell you something else. So it was kind of like when you're pregnant, right? And then you go buy that privacy book, and you freak out, but then buy another book, it'll tell you something different, right? So, right. I love it that we're having somebody who is not just an expert on social media, but has literally, you know, walked the walk, and not just talk the talk, right? You know, now you've got another book, and you know Guy Kawasaki, I mean, can't go wrong with having a co writer there. So let's just kind of dive into that. So, Peg, from your experience, what would you say are the foundational steps to building a digital strategy that doesn't just look good, but actually drives real results for your business?

Patty Farmer: 00:02:32

Great question. So I think you know the one, the first thing to start with is there's no cookie cutter approach that's going to work for everybody. So when you see these people on Instagram, like, I started 30 days ago, and I have a great plan, and I grew from this to this in 30 days. And, you know, get my download, and you can do it too for $17 that was what I just saw recently. It's like, okay, this person showed up 30 days ago, and maybe what they did work for their account to grow something right now, that does not mean that's going to work for your small business, for you. So it's really, there's no cookie cutter and advice, and there's no shortcuts either. That you know it's there's a lot of work on social media. There's no way to get around it. So if you're a small business owner, having a strategy obviously helps a lot. So the first place to get started is to figure out who your customers are, like, who's going to buy your product or services. And then you want to tailor your and you're going to build out your brand. I mean, I go through all obviously, I go through all of this in my book, but just giving the reader side, just version, the podcast version, if we will. You know, you need to figure out who your who your audience is. Because if you're not speaking directly to that small business owner or the person who's going to buy your products, you're speaking to like everyone. So people who say, you know, my audience is everyone. Everybody can use this. You're not going to speak to your ideal audience. What you want to do is create messages that are so great. People say, this is exactly what I really needed right now, or this was the help I was needed, and this was the answer I was looking for. So you have to be helpful, you know, online, answer people's questions and show them how you can help them with your products or services. So it's kind of, you know, you are building something, and you want people to come to it, but you want to definitely reach the right people. So I think that's something that people miss. You know, when they try to do these quick strategies of just do this and just follow this exact real strategy, maybe the trending song will help your content do better, but if your content isn't talking to the right people, then you know, it's not going to work. Is that going to help?

Patty Farmer: 00:04:41

And I think that kind of works for a lot of things too, because I know that as a marketing expert, I see that all the time, when people will come to me, they don't know who their avatar, or they have 10 of them, right, you know. Or, you know, they don't really know what their customer journey map is. They've never mapped out the customer journey, you know. And I tell them all the time, it's like, listen, Yes, you. To speak to all of them in each one of those stages, just not in the same post, right? You're not not in the same thing, right? You know? And so I think that is really important, and that was really, really good advice. But one of the things that I love, that really hit me when I was checking you out, when I decided I wanted to have you on my podcast, is a thing that you call the social media CPR approach, right about breathing life back into stagnant channels, right? You know. And I think that's true, whether it's a Facebook group, LinkedIn or maybe, you know, because again, like what you just said, somebody said, oh, yeah, I'd spend your time here. Spend your time here. So now you kind of have walked away from this other one, and you went over there and said, Oh, nope, that didn't work. And now they're kind of stagnant, which, you know, I also feel like sometimes some of those people that you're seeing are pretty big names, and that's why people think they should do it, right? The fact of the matter is those, those pretty big names have pretty big teams and pretty big dollars behind it as well, right? And stuff, though. And so, I mean, I know, I saw one not that long ago who literally worked for Tony Robbins, right, you know. And she was saying, Oh, I can help you to make $100,000 well, she did it, but she'd already done all this work, all these other things. She had a really big team that had a really big budget and stuff, though. So that doesn't mean it's going to fit everybody. Like you said, there's not a cookie cutter you got to do the work with, you know, and so I think that is important. However, when you do talk about this social media CPR approach, you kind of really want to talk about that, because I do think people do have stagnant channels, and specifically Facebook groups. I think that's a stagnant one that we're seeing a lot of right now. How can businesses revive right their social media presence and re engage their audience. So if they've already let it go stagnant, I know a lot of times what people want to do is, oh, let me just change the name, or let me just shut that one down and start another one. But surely there has to be some way to revive your social media presence and just kind of re engage the audience. So what are some strategies about doing that.

Patty Farmer: 00:07:00

So the first thing is, I don't ever recommend shutting it down and starting over either, unless you've switched to a totally different business and your customers aren't going to be the same anymore. But usually it's the same thing and you just let it drop off. So the first thing I always say is, don't start out with a post saying, Sorry I was gone. You know, like you always see they're like, sorry I didn't post for three months, and then then they post for two days, and then they come back, and it ends up looking like a Yo yo, and it really does not build trust with your audience. So don't post an explanation for why. Whatever happened. You know, life happened. Business happened. Something happened. You didn't post. The first thing is, just create a good strategy. Figure out how much time you have to give to this channel before you get started and just do a one off. Because if you just start doing one offs on your dead channel, it's not going to help at all. So figure out, you know, how much time do you have? Can you devote a little time create a little strategy for this. It's, we'll just use a Facebook group, for example. So say you're like an antique shop, and you have a Facebook group where you post, you know, the new things that you're getting in the shop, and it's going to this group before it's getting posted publicly. So they got, like, a little sneak peek for, like, the big customers. So you're going to, you know, just come up with a little plan, come up with, you know, at least a week worth of content that you create ahead of time. You know, create a little interest behind stuff. You know, do some lighter content too. It doesn't all have to be, especially in a Facebook group, it doesn't all have to be, like a sales thing. You know, come up with some wider things, like post up something for Mondays, like a Monday motivation post, and do a picture of something cute, and write a little thing that people can respond to Facebook groups and really, anywhere you really want to think about, not posting something that's just static, but posting something that encourages people to engage with your content. So ask a question, but do a little poll. Do something that people can interact with. So come up with like five different posts. We'll say a poll. We'll do, you know, like this or that kind of post. We have like two different things, like, are you autumn or Christmas? Like, which is your favorite decorating thing? Give things that are really easy for people to respond to, because the easier it is for people to respond to, the better it is. And then if you can create, if you're in a Facebook group, it's not going to really be something that shares. But on other social channels, you want to think about something that people could share to their audience, send they're so excited to see it that they send a direct message with to someone else, saying, You cannot leave this. I want this so much or like you. We have to go check this out this weekend. Something like that that you're going to share. Sharing is is is really big right now in the engagement piece per Instagram themselves. Adam laceri, the head of threads and Instagram, has come out and said multiple times that that sharing piece is the most important. But for Facebook groups, as I said, that's that, you know, those things, what's in the group stays in the group. So, you know, think about it. Really kind of entertaining people a lot in a Facebook group, I feel like, you know, you're really just like, there's a lot of things in the world for people to look at. If it's a good Facebook group where there's lots of engagement, people are into it. They chose that Facebook group because they loved whatever the topic was, or whatever the group that you created. And there's a lot of different things that you can have Facebook groups for but it's, you know, just come up with five different things. And if you can come up with your five things and create your week's worth of content, a thing that I've seen that's very successful is having just a different theme day for different days in there, you know, give people a chance to drop their own links one day of the week. You know, just Friday things. It's very, like I said, very entertaining content, but still, you would work your marketing things in there at certain times, but not every post. So that you know, just coming up with a solid week of content, working out how much time you have, and then figuring out your plan for consistency is really important. So it's not as hard as it seems Yes, maybe you haven't been there, but I think the thing that we all forget about is people aren't just going to remember that you weren't there. They might scroll down and see that you haven't posted for a while, but if you've post something new and interesting, and they see it and you have some comments underneath it, you know, get the conversation going, it'll it doesn't matter that you haven't been there for a little bit. So I think we think that people think of us more than they do, just kind of like in real life, you know, you know, just kind of move on with it and just zush, some life in there. Video is a great way too. You know, even started out with a video post. If you can just make a little video and just say, like, hey, you know, it's just so people see your face and, you know, videos. Just mix it up for that one week. If you see some posts that work really well, work it into your weekly calendar for every week, and just work on your calendar for the month. And just be consistent with it. Just if you're going to start it, if you're going to give it CPR, you have to be consistent moving forward. So make sure you have time to devote to.

Patty Farmer: 00:12:03

It makes sense. And, you know, I think consistency, you know, if you only have enough time to do it three days a week, well, then just consistently do it three days a week. You don't have to do it five if it's only two, but consistently do it too. But I do believe that consistency really is the key. That's the main thing. So what about the small businesses that are trying to balance the DIY social media and outsourcing, right, you know, so they have a VA but they are kind of doing some DIY social media too. What aspects Do you think they should focus on themselves, and what should they consider outsourcing?

Patty Farmer: 00:12:37

That's a really good question. So if you're going to outsource, I think the thing is, you have to make sure that the person kind of gets your brand, really gets your brand voice, and really gets your style of post, like what you know visually, what your brand does. So I think at the beginning you would just need to work with someone and have them maybe create a couple examples of things that you like to post, or, you know, if it's somebody like you and I that are have already created a lot of stuff like, they can really, like, look at what we've already created and say, Okay, this is, this is my style. And, you know, I'm kind of open to some new things within this, but this is what I really like. And here's some templates that I work with. And, you know, I always want to stick with these brand colors, fonts and all that kind of thing. So one thing is the visual piece of it, and then the other piece is the brand voice to make sure that they're really speaking. Is you one thing that I see small businesses do a lot is they make the mistake of getting the voice wrong, and they kind of talk like themselves instead of being the brand. And that's a little confusing for people when they're following, you know, say the it's the little antique store again, and, you know, they know it is, like old timey antiques, but then the person's like, I just went to the blah, blah, blah. And it's confusing for people. If you're trying to talk as your self, as an individual, you have to think about the brand voice. So that's something that you want to work with. Work with, with your VA, I mean, and depending on what kind of experience they have, you can give them a ton of things, like, you know, creating the graphics, creating the text. Are there some things that you feel most comfortable with, if you have, like, a promotion coming up, do you want to, like, really come up with an outline for that? So it depends on where you are in your kind of working with someone level two. I mean, I, I worked with guy for a good decade, working on his things behind the scenes. So I've been on both sides of it. I've hired people and I and I've worked to other people's things. You get to the level of, you know, they just send you. Here's this promotion. Do this, do that they send you pictures. It's great to get to that point, but at the beginning point, you do just want to be a little bit more hands on, you know, and see what their expertise is. Have them send the, you know, the graphics to beforehand, or just use, like a Trello board. I love Trello, or notion something. Like that. Create a Trello board where they can put things in there so you can see them. You can approve them if you want, or just even to see them ahead of time, and maybe tweak the text a little bit. So it takes a little bit to work together with a VA to get, like, the right, you know, Cadence and all the pieces together. But, you know, there's a lot of people who create really great stuff. Amy Porterfield was the person who I think you were talking about before she worked with Tony Robbins. She has a huge team of people. She does video and, you know, she's got people helping her with all aspects of her business. So it's great if you're at that point, but most people don't have a team of multiple people to help them, creating and doing things. So just think about, you know, if you can, if you can afford someone a little bit, what are the things? Another thing to think about is, what things are you most comfortable with, and what things do you not like? Like, Are there parts of what you do that are really not your favorite thing, but you really love, you know, you really love creating the graphics then do that piece, like, whatever pieces are not your favorite thing. Find somebody who can do those because the whole point of having a team is to have somebody that can help you succeed. So if you can only afford someone for, you know, a few hours a week, do what works best for you. If email is the thing that you hate doing the most, have someone help you out and do your email. You know, it's, it's all that's, again, a personal thing, like, there's not a one size fit thing. It's like, it's kind of like finding the right person. So maybe you want to work with someone for 30 days and try it out and see if they're the right fit. So there's a lot of different ways that you can work with people. Small businesses usually aren't going to hire an agency, because that's even more expensive. So if you are working with a small business. You know, if you're a small business and you hire a VA, you just have them a couple hours week. Just figure out the best use of their time, and make sure that you have enough for them to do. Sometimes you give them a few things, and you think it's going to take a while, and then they actually might need more. So kind of work with them. Figure out what you know, what you want to get, get off your plate. The thing that's a drag for you. I mean, maybe it's creating graphics is a thing that you hate. So have them do it, and then just have a really good plan. It's important for you to know, as a small business owner, what your brand voice is, and all those things if you're going to, even if you're going to outsource it, because you want to make sure that it's right. So when you're outsourcing, you can, you know, do the things that I suggested before, but then also, you know, you do have to let go a little bit when you outsource and someone else is going to do your thing. So part of it is being patient and giving them time to do things. But it does work out really well. I mean, I think it's something, I think people are really comfortable with the practice. Now, it used to be a really strange thing, right? Where you would hire someone to do things, and people are like, you don't even work with them. You don't even see them.

Patty Farmer: 00:17:47

Most people now, most people that I would for sure, all have a team. They usually already have a team, but still they there's things they'd like to do. Like for me, I I'm very creative, and I love doing graphics. I love it, but it's a rabbit hole. For me. I love it so much I go down a rabbit hole. So basically, I just created, like, a whole kind of like, when you're going to hire somebody and they show you a portfolio, I just created a portfolio of things that I created that I love, and then that's what I showed them. I want things that look like this. This is right, you know what I like. This is what I've done, and I just want you to recreate other things with that. Here's my brand kit, you know? Here's my colors, this is my font, this is whatever. And I still love doing all those things, but I do realize it is something that does take up a lot of time. So I have, like, two people on my team that literally do those things, and I have one person who just does captions for them, and right? And again, it has been really about training them to know my brain and you know. And still, sometimes when we have our team calls, you know, and I say, No, that's not, you know, we're not going to use that, and they say, why? And I'm like, because that's not my brand, right? You know, that is not my brand. And a lot of times as an example for this podcast, like, I have somebody on my team who edits video, and so when they edit video, what sometimes they keep and what they don't is kind of like, why did you share that, you know? And, like, just you know, like, why did you share that? Why did you think that that was important? It is something that the guests said. But like, what you're saying right now talking about VA, you're not a very, you know, you're not a VA agency. So, like, really, honestly, I don't think you would really want me to create all these reels about what you should, how you should train your VA, right? You know, right? You know, a lot of times it's that, but literally, that is about training them. What is on brand, right? You know, what is on brand? Yeah, and so that's why, for everybody that I work with my team, they know my clients brands, even though they don't really work with my clients. But if I ask them to do anything, they have to know, but it kind of tells them a little bit about who you are. So I do think that is really important, but to make sure we don't digress, but I do feel like it is important to know. Know those things when you are outsourcing, yeah, and to really be clear on exactly what you want them to do. So I don't think, like anything else, whether you have a brick and mortar business or whatever, very rarely do you hire somebody that gets everything ready day one, right? There's always some training, but you want to because, you know, there's like, some adage about that, about, you know, you don't want somebody to stay that's not doing it. You really don't want them to leave either. So, train them. Train them. What you want.

Patty Farmer: 00:20:29

So, and part of the piece with it with a graphic style, like, when it's your brand, visuals and things you just like when it's your own brand, you know, like, that is me, that isn't me. Like, something like, it could just be a very small thing, and you're like, No, that's just not, like, I wouldn't use that emoji, or whatever it is. Like, you know, there's some that you like, and so, and it's part of it is of this Earl thing inside of us, like, we created this, like we, we've all created our brands, and they meet, you know, it's kind of like your baby, you know,

Patty Farmer: 00:20:59

I I agree. Like, I know that my team, someone, marketing company, right? And I don't like, like white boxes. I don't like white boxes, right, you know? And so I know a lot of times when you want people to write in things, you know, whether it's in a workbook or whatever, like, they always make a box, and that's where they write. Well, I actually have boxes that are my own boxes, right? And so I always have to say, no, no, no, they need to have my box, my box. And they're like, Patty, what's the deal? They're just writing in the box. But no, when I look at it, it's not my brand. Like, my brand, I carry specific boxes and stuff, and it's not a big deal. They're in the brand kit. Like, that's what I want, right? You know? But once they get it, they get it right now and stuff. So I think that's really good. Yeah. So would you say, with the actually the constant pressure right to produce fresh content, right? How do you think you could find the balance between creativity and consistency in your social media strategy? Because it really is doing both, right? We talked about consistency, how important that is. Kind of just talked about being creative and how you can have somebody help you that. But there is a balance there that you have to do, because we really are producing fresh content all the time, although I have to tell you, I'm a a believer, and a huge component of you can create and you can curate, right? You know, there's both of those things that you could do. But what would you say is the balance? What you should be thinking about when you're balancing those two things?

Patty Farmer: 00:22:28

I think the thing is to try to batch, process things, create a batch of content in a time. You don't have to share everything that you create right away. So if you have a chunk of time, especially for small business owners who are managing a million different things, and social media is probably just one part of it. So if you're a person who just has a small amount of time, it's a lot easier to batch process things. Get all camera ready and just record some video, or just record some B roll video, and have a bunch of things that you can use when you need to. And then, if you, especially if you have a team that gives you stuff that you can send them to, if you have a team, you can have them curate ideas for you. You know, find things that are trending, you know, you could have them create a little punch list for you, of like, make these five things. And then you can take one group of time, get your lights and your sound and everything perfect, and just make five different little pieces. When you batch, kind of batch create things, it makes it so much easier, because when you're doing a one off, then you have to get everything all set up every time. And you know, it's just sometimes you need a couple minutes to get, like, get the vibe right, or get the camera right, or whatever. You know, once you get the vibe going, then it's easy to create a bunch of different things, so batch creating content helps, because then either you or your team has things to put out for the near future. If you're not creating a plan ahead of time, obviously it's really hard to be consistent, and it's really hard to create good quality stuff. If you're like, oh my god, I haven't posted anything today, or I haven't posted anything in a week, and then you start getting, like, nervous about it, and you do something that's not great, and you post it anyway, doesn't really serve any purpose at all if you're creating something, and the only purpose it has is just to post something today, and it doesn't have any other purpose. It's not going to really help your business. So creating that strategy plan, and then just having a couple times, even just one good chunk of time a week where you can, like, record a bunch of things, or just create a bunch of things, helps a lot. I think what do you batch content at all?

Patty Farmer: 00:24:30

I batch, I batch all my content. I actually have two times in my week that I block off, yeah, I block off time that are no calls. That's where I work on that so that I can hand them off for sure. And I think you talked earlier about or in your bio, where I talked about how you've worked with Canva. So what would you say, because we're here, we're talking about being creative and passionate, right? So it's perfect leading right there. And what would you say are some of the most creative ways to market a business using Canva? And how can even the most. Design Challenge entrepreneurs create visually compelling content. Now I have to tell you, I, you know, I have Adobe and all these other things too, but I have to tell you, you can do so many things with Canva. I mean, that whole change all button and the batch button. I mean, like there are so many things in the ring size. I mean, you can just do so many things so quickly, right? Yeah. I mean, it's so easy to just create, and then once I approve them, just say yes. Now resize them, change this or whatever. But I feel like you could be so creative. Now, I do believe I will say, first, I do think there are some things you shouldn't use Canva for, but as a general rule, I think you could do a whole lot in your business by using Canvas. So what would you say are some of the creative ways? Here's where we want this. What are some ninja tips and hacks that you can that group you can share?

Patty Farmer: 00:25:49

Okay, so I think one thing is to create like you. We already talked about the brand kit, so having your brand kit already set up in Canva makes everything else easier, because you have all your colors and fonts. And then you can choose a bunch of images. They have images in there, but you can, you know, make sure that your images are all on brand. So when you just have all your stuff in there ready to go, you mentioned both creating the bulk Create button is amazing if you want to create a lot of the same thing. So say, you have a podcast and you want to create, you know, for every show, you want to have a quote graphic for, you know, just some little quote, and you want to have that in two sizes. So you can go and create a spreadsheet, and you could just put all the things, all quotes in there. So let's say you're, you're back doing it for a bunch of episodes. You can make 30 quotes from people. You could even take your transcript and find quotes that like, there's a lot of really big shortcuts that you can find things, but you could take your transcript, put it into an AI, say, find, you know, five great quotes. And if we'll do it for Pinterest. So if you're going to do it for Pinterest, you can do five quotes from one podcast, no problem. So you can create one graphic in Canva, and then there's a and then put your logo on it. Have all your great branding on there. The only thing that's going to change is the guest name and the quote. So then in the book create, you can just hit the little bull Create button, and you connect the lines in your in your CSV file with the quote and the person's name. And then you hit a button, and it'll just create them automatically, all of them. And sometimes you have to tweak them a little bit, like one quote be longer or shorter. So you can tweak them a little bit, but it's really easy to create really consistent content in a snap, if you just have a spreadsheet of quotes or something else that you can use. Do you use both Create button? Is that what you were talking about?

Patty Farmer: 00:27:39

I use the Bulk create all the time. I use it for everything. And I feel like I don't use too many personally of the templates that are in there, right? I usually create my own, but I like the change all. I just create one, and then do a whole bunch of things and change all bulk batch. I do all of those. So I think, and there is so many AI tools now, right? So, you know, AI tools are becoming way more prevalent in social media management, right? Totally. Um, do you have any that you could recommend for streamlining, content creation, scheduling or engagement? Yeah.

Patty Farmer: 00:28:14

So actually, in Canva, they're working on even more updated AI. I'm on, like a beta for the Canva thing in the in there, the work you can do documents in Canva, and you can have it do other things, right? So Canva is actually adding a lot more in there. I use chat GBT a lot, and I also use another one called Magi, M, A, G, A, I, which is a really nice one where you can just go in there, you have one account, and you can use all different AI tools in there, we were getting, like, overloaded with AI tools. Everything is an AI tool. Everything used to be news, social media, scheduling tools and how everything is an AI tool. But they are helpful if you just create prompts for things that you want. You know again, you can batch, create your your prompts to have a ai do a certain thing. So if you know, every month you want to create X, you can create a prompt. And once you work with the the AI, depending on what one you're using, get them to know your brand voice. Sometimes you might want to put your little this is by brand voice. Even have a prompt saying what your brand voice is, and explain who you are, who your ideal audience is, what this post is about, and then ask them to create blah, blah, blah. So you can use AI to do shortcuts for a lot of things. I do like to use them for like, if I'm going to make like, multiple Pinterest pins I use, I have it create the title, the description, and that I can just create a bunch of pins, and then I can either schedule them in Pinterest, or you can use a tool like plan. I like to use the plan at a lot, and you can schedule those for multiple days. So it's really easy to take one piece of content and create a whole bunch of things and get it out there in the world, because that's another thing that you need to be able to do for your career. Creating content. Like you're making videos or podcasts or blog posts, you want to create a bunch of different pieces of content from that in different formats. And it's really easy to do that using AI to like, just write out what you want for each thing, and then, you know, have it. Have it. Create three LinkedIn posts that are text only two, you know, threads, you know, just write out the things that you want. And if it's not perfect, just keep going back and saying, you know, this isn't exactly how I would say it. Can you make this more like this? This isn't the right brand voice. It takes a little bit of time to work with them. Generic prompts are obviously going to give you, like, a generic response. So the more that you work with that, and the more that you stick with the same thing. I mean, I don't like to switch around tools all the time, because then you're just, you have the learning curve of a new tool, and you get more tied up in that than you do with actually the content creation. It's easy to go down that rabbit hole too. So I just stick with those two different things. And I am doing more things in Canva in their back end, not it back end, but just beta. So it's not out there for everybody yet. So those are the things that I like to do. And then there's always new things in Canva. I mean, there's, there's a million things that you can create and do in there. I for small businesses, it's really great to to use their Canva print function if you're making business cards or signs, or any kind of things, even for like, little trade show, things like say you're going to like a little like Chamber of Commerce event, and you're going to have a little table, you can create one of those banners that pulls up, that folds down easily. I made one, recently printed it in Canva. It was so freaking easy. I made bookmarks. I made stickers. You can make all different kinds of things that you need for your small business owner. And then you could print them in Canva, and they ship to you that the print quality is amazing. I printed all different kinds of things. The prices are really good. You can find coupons for that a lot, if you're looking but they you know, print isn't dead and traditional media isn't that small business owners still have a lot of traditional media things to use. So it's not only for your online things, but you can use Canva for your offline things as well.

Patty Farmer: 00:32:10

Oh, I agree with that, too. And I think that with the AI tools, again, it's just like everything else you train it. So I mean, obviously, like I said, I'm in marketing, and so I help a lot of my clients with messaging, and so I'm kind of a prompt engineer, and so cool, literally, my favorite tool, my favorite AI tool, is called cast magic. And one of the things you can do in cast magic is you can, you know, upload YouTube videos or audio or whatever, and then it has a whole bunch of community prompts built into it, but my cast magic has, right now, 52 custom prompts that I have created.

Patty Farmer: 00:32:49

It'll have to look at it.

Patty Farmer: 00:32:51

Yeah. So every single thing that I do, I have every piece of thing that I do. So like, if I do a workshop, or I give a speech, do a presentation, like I just uploaded in there. And chatgpt actually has a Canva actually has a Canva plugin too, yeah. So that actually works too. But like, when I go to cast magic, I literally have created and I do it for all my clients. So I literally create custom prompts for it. And it will take my one thing, it'll create all everything for me. It creates all my real scripts, my YouTube scripts from and it's my voice, because it's my content, right? So it's not like I'm asking AI to write my content. It is my content, yeah, and I just have it. It creates all my LinkedIn, my Facebook, my threads, my tweets. You know? It creates the lead magnets, everything.

Patty Farmer: 00:33:40

Isn't it crazy? Isn't it crazy? What you can do?

Patty Farmer: 00:33:43

I just want to, I always just like to tell people the thing that you want to do when you're using an AI tool is it needs to be your content, right? You know, it is a language model, and you know you want to make sure you're checking it when you're just going in there doing it. So I never use AI, personally, to write. I write my own content, and I use AI to enhance my content and to do other things for me, like a virtual assistant, and create things for me based on based on my content. So

Patty Farmer: 00:34:11

I liked, I like to have it analyze my content too. Oh, you ever do you put it in you say, can you tell me what my brand voice is? And then, you know, if it's not what you want it to be, it's a really great way to make sure you're you're online with your with your brand, because you think you're saying one thing I use do, use Grammarly at all. I love Grammarly because that has the little voice tells you what, what voices use. Obviously, it helps you make less mistakes, too. But I like that. It like, kind of gives you a read on, like, the tone that you have in the content that you're writing. It's really important. And, you know, we all have different, you know, a good day or a bad day. Like, even if you're having a really bad day, you still have to write the brand, your same brand voice and have the same tone. So I found that really useful to put some of my thing, I mean, it, it can read your website. Do. But I mean, just like a certain piece that you did, or something that you did, just have put it in there,

Patty Farmer: 00:35:04

I always thought I have chunks of content that depending upon what I'm doing, because it actually, you know, it does have memory and stuff, so it really does that. But I find that because I've done so well in my prompting and what I want it to do that. When I go in and tell it the things that I wanted to do, it does understand. But I always have it. I always ask it to to I always say, and, you know, sometimes people laugh at this, like, if you tell it, it's doing a great job, and these type of things, it does listen. I like to tell I call by chatgpt chatty. Although I use chatty boutique,

Patty Farmer: 00:35:44

I do too. I call mine chatty too.

Patty Farmer: 00:35:46

So mine's chatty Patty, so chatty. And I actually tell her, I like I have faith in you. I want you to take a moment. I actually like this. I want you to take a moment. I want you to really think about it. This is good. I think you can do a little better, analyze it, critique what you did? Where are the gaps? Where are the opportunities? And I literally prompted to do that. It'll just keep doing better and better and better and stuff. And so I think that you can do so much with it without having to keep going back like it will. It will do those things. So I think that is really important, but it's knowing what to say to it, inputting and output. And it is about the prompts, right? You know, these Gone are the days where we just say, act like, you know, blah, blah, blah, like that was, you know, old school. Really, you have to do so much more you do

Patty Farmer: 00:36:35

But I also like to be really polite with mine. I've asked other people about that, and they were like, No, I don't really think it matters, but I really think it does matter. I always say, could you please blah blah? And I say, thank you. And then I do the same thing, like, this wasn't exactly what I wanted. Could you try again and make it more blah blah blah, or this tone? Didn't you know?

Patty Farmer: 00:36:55

I say, thank you to it. I said, Oh, this is great. Sometimes I was like, This is really good. I said, but I think you can do better. I think we can improve it. This is what I think we need to improve it. And sometimes I'll say that, you know, and then I'll upload more content that I think it needs, and say, Okay, let me upload a few more things. And then I'll put more things in there. And then it's like, oh, now I understand what you want and stuff.

Patty Farmer: 00:37:18

I tried a thing yesterday where I was working, I had like, a review that came up, and it was a printed, it was a I did a screenshot of something, and I loaded it, and I'm like, Can you do a summary of this? And it read all the text from the screenshot to to write a summary, which I thought was helpful

Patty Farmer: 00:37:36

That I just started doing. That's really wonderful. So you know how like when you create stuff, and then you're going to add visuals, right then, yeah, visuals. Now you can actually upload the visuals to chat GPT. And ask chatgpt to say, you know, what is it that you see? Like, what do you see? And let it tell you, and then say, does that align with the copy? And you want to make sure that you know, what are the visuals aligning with the copy that you write right then the last thing I ask it is, I ask it to score and that on their by their standards, what does this copy get? And then always, it always gives me at least an 8.5 that's the lowest I've ever got. It'll say at 8.5 and I'll say, what is it missing that would get it to be a 10 out of 10, then it'll say, Oh, well, have you thought about putting some FAQs in here? Or have you thought about putting this is four? And then it'll literally tell you, I'll be like, Oh, yes, that's right, I should put that. And it doesn't really, I don't ask it to write it for me, but it will tell me those things and stuff, right? You know, if you're saying, Oh, I'm doing a sales page, and I've had it sometimes say that it that they thought that the words on my buttons weren't as compelling. So so it does analyze and do other things. So I feel like I could do a whole podcast just on my favorite ways I use AI.

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:38:50

But you should. It sounds like you've got some great, some great things working there.

Patty Farmer: 00:38:55

I love AI. You're like, hey, well, I do, I do, but that's so funny. So the digital landscape, let's talk about the digital landscape like it shifts quickly, right? I mean, look at how we're talking about AI. So what would you say your approach is to staying flexible and adapting your social media strategy in real time as the trends and algorithms change? Because, you know, everybody's like, Oh my gosh, the algorithm changes. Now we need to do this, and then they go all crazy and they do stuff. So I really feel like, yes, it does shift quickly. Yes, we do have real time trends, and the algorithms do change. And so what would you say your approach is to kind of stay inflexible and adapting?

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:39:35

I think you, like you said, you do need to stay flexible and adapt, but also you need to stay true to yourself and your brand. I think, you know, meta tries to make us post a certain kind of content that they want. You know, it was first it was just text, and then it was like, everything needs a graphic, and then everything was video, then it had to be real. Now everything is short form. Video. So they're, you know, it's like, still changing. I think a lot of people who are like super OG on Instagram, they really just still like the beautiful esthetic photos, and they still work in how to do those. And I think that's fine. I think, you know, I think one thing is, you don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater, you know, stick to the things that are the heart of your brand and adapt to the new things where you can so when reels first came out and they were popular, everything was a dance, even on Tiktok, you know, everything was like doing dance move things, and everybody was doing the same things over and over again. And sometimes those can be popular and fun to do, but a lot of times those are not going to really help your business at all, even people who have gone viral on Tiktok, you know, it may not have helped their business at all, because they didn't have everything else.

Patty Farmer: 00:40:49

It was just funny, right? You know, I have friends that do that. I actually don't. I made the decision not to do Tiktok for me and for my business, but, but I have so many clients like, oh yes, I'm gonna teach you something. Okay, so, have you ever purchased anything? Oh, no, I just, I just like, sit there all day and scroll and laugh. I'm like, well, that's really great. But how's that helping your business, right? You know, right? So I think it's true. What would you say about, like, one of the things that I think is really important, so I'm kind of curious to know what you think is really storytelling, right? Is really using stores. I think it's key to building those connections on social media. Yeah, do you have any tips for crafting an authentic brand story so that it resonates with your followers and it encourages interaction? Because, really, that's what it's all about, right? So I have seen people like, throw up on social media and they just, Oh, my goodness. Like it was like, way, way too much. I don't think people really beat that. Right? You know,

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:41:41

I think so too. There's a release of good keys on how to be told over sharing your personal life. Is that storytelling for a brand, that's those are two different things. So I think storytelling, yes, is very important. And I think for small business owners, you are the heart of your business, and so you are the best person to create your story. And I think obviously we're all not going to have a whole bunch of stories, right? We have like, one story about why our brand started, and there may be different things that we did within it, but I think you need to just really take the time to, like, write down what are the core things of your brand, what are the things that you can talk about that are going to connect with people in my brand, I talk about that I'm from a small town and that I love small businesses because they're the heart of all of our communities. And, you know, that's the thing that I talk about a lot. My brand is kind of like a girl next door, kind of small town girl kind of thing. And that's, that's really who I that is who I am. So that is what I put in there. And I talk about these things purposely, because there's been times where I you know when you go, when you're you're a speaker too, so you've done this, or you go speak at conferences or speak at events, people come up to you and you want them to say you're exactly like you are online, because I am like, and it takes a little bit to hone that who you are and what your voice is, and that is all part of your story. There is people who I met that I followed online, and I met them in person, and they were nothing at all, like their online brand, and they were rude or jerks or and then you're like, you know what? Everything that you're saying online is just a lie. So you don't want to be that person. You really want to have, like, an authentic, I know it's kind of a cliche phrase, yeah, it is, it is. It is a buzzword, but it is a true you know, you really want your true story to be part of your storytelling, you know, brand. So there are, there are a bunch of good storytelling books, but I would urge you to, like, write out what you feel your story is. And again, you can use AI for this. Go to AI and say, you know, use the guidelines in this book, like, you know, Donnell Miller's story brand or something, and say, you know, can you evaluate, you know, the story that I'm telling this is, you know, I want to reach this customer, and how can I work with this story based on the framework and this model to, you know? And then you can have it evaluate your story and see if it's if you are telling the right story, if you are reaching the right people, and if you are kind of explaining it, and then it's working your story into different social post, you know, however you're going to work it in. So it's kind of like one thing that you write that gets used a lot. It's going to be like, in your about page, you know, in your in it could be little pieces of it in your bio, maybe. And then you would use it, you know, in different things. You could create, like, a little like boilerplate that goes at the bottom of, like, LinkedIn posts saying, like, you know, I'm blah blah blah, the blah blah blah, you know, with just like a little tagline kind of thing that would go at the bottom, that would have keywords in it, so they're searchable. So, you know, there's a lot of ways to work your story in, but you really just need to hone in on what it is first. And if you're not really sure at all what your story is. Just like I said, take some time. Look for some blog posts and videos on storytelling and just work on it. You know, Disney, Disney storytelling and Pixar Storytelling are amazing for a reason, and there's just some key elements in stories that people you know, that people want to hear. And storytelling has been around since the beginning of time before even written word. You know, when it was just pictures on the wall. You know, we want to communicate with people. So just think about, you know, how you can create a story that really tells who you are and reaches the right people. Get all those pieces tied in. And like I said, you're just going to reuse parts of that in your social posts and on your content.

Patty Farmer: 00:45:39

I think I'm a speaker, and so I would say that probably the greatest compliment that I've ever had, over and over and over and over, is when people say to me, You know what, Patty, now that I've met you, you're exactly the same on social media as you are on the stage, as you are when I meet you as you are at the coffee shop. I'm like, yeah, it's too hard to try to be somebody else. But you know. I mean, I just want to be who I am, and so, so I think that that is important. But I do have to say, I will admit, storytelling was hard for me. It really was mostly because I'm very wordy. I just, and I like to paint the picture. And, you know, have the trees and whatever, and so, you know, you can go off in the weeds, right, telling the story like, right? Even in my family, my friends are like, okay, Patty, right, you know, like and stuff. And so when I became a speaker, I had to really learn very quickly how to hone the story to the important parts of the story. And I have a friend who literally writes for my magazine, and she is a storytelling expert. And every time I look at her social media posts she sees like inside every post, you know, like even my little statements, where she'll say, but that's a story for another date, right? But now, you know, there's going to be another story or right, you know, or whatever, and it just is, like a line in what she's telling you now, oh, she's so good at it. And that doesn't come to me naturally. It is something that I, you know, there's things that come to us that are super natural, really, really easy. Connecting is easy for me, but, but that is probably the thing that I, I don't want to say I struggle with, but I cognitively work on it all the time, right? You know, key phrase.

Patty Farmer: 00:47:17

Key phrases are really, that's a really interesting thing to add to your brand. Voice, you know, come up with some key phrases that you use consistently, you know, whether it's a little slang, whether it's a little you know, that's that's a really interesting piece. Do you follow Ashlyn writes? Ashlyn Carter, I love her so much. Ash A, S, H, L, y n,

Patty Farmer: 00:47:37

Right. Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:47:38

She's a conversion copyright person she's worked with, like Amy Porterfield and Jenna Kutcher, and she writes the copy for their, you know, their launches and things like that. She's so amazing. She's got a YouTube channel and really great content. Um, she's really great for, like, having you figure out all that stuff, because

Patty Farmer: 00:47:56

I think it is really, really important. I mean, I'm in marketing, so really helping someone to really understand that I'm gonna go check her out. I am connected to her, but I go check out, yeah, on a podcast. And we're sitting here like doing so

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:48:08

It's but there's a lot of different people that, like you said your friend is really good at storytelling, and Ashlyn is also like, her email is like, a really great email. When I get it, I'm like, I hate getting emails, and I love her email. So, you know, there's something to be said from being able to learn from people, because we're great at marketing, but that doesn't mean we're conversion copywriting expert. That's her main area of expertise.

Patty Farmer: 00:48:30

I think that that is really interesting too, because sometimes, like I probably I get a lot of email because I sign up for a lot of things. I love to see funnels and stuff, right? And I probably have, I want to say, like, seven newsletters or whatever that I read as soon as I get them. I know when they're coming. I love them. And being able to take a story and then turn it into, like, you know, learn something about business in that, I think, is really a great skill set. And I remember years ago. I'll never forget it. I don't know if you remember, there was this show that was on called scandal, and it was all about Olivia Pope, right? Yeah, fixer, yeah. And one time that I saw somebody write this email that said 10 things I learned from Olivia Pope, so literally, it stood out in my email. And then they just broke down these things about her and how they applied them to their business. Like I still have it. I still think it's probably one of the greatest posts that I have ever seen. And I'm just like, you know, it is really great when you could take a story and apply it, which, when I teach that to my clients, I call that newsjacking, right? You know, jacking, right? You know. And stuff is really, really important. But I do think that learning how to do that is key, and it's kind of like a trend, right? So speaking about marketing trends, right? They're always evolving. Oh, yes. So what fresh trends are you seeing right now in social media and digital marketing, and how can businesses capitalize on them to stay ahead?

Patty Farmer: 00:49:59

I. Think, you know, I would say the biggest thing is really building your community, and the engagement piece is really big. The focus isn't on the follower count. It's more on, you know, people that you're talking to, direct messaging, you know, comments on people's posts like I had mentioned earlier, sharing, you know, the sharing, those are the things that are really important now, because as the algorithms shut things down further, everywhere, and we have X amount of people following us, only a small percentage of those people are going to see everything. Even if it's the best thing we've ever created, they're not going to be shown to people because the algorithms have turned them off to some extent. So think about ways that in your copy that you're making sure that you're, you know, putting engagement points in there, asking questions, making it easy for people to comment on things using, like the many chat bots if you're delivering, you know, if you know, if you have things that you want to send, if you're doing like a giveaway or a new blog post, or, you know, if you're selling things, you know, write that really engaging content and then have people comment a certain word, and then, with that bot set up, it sends people, it automatically comments on your post, and it sends whatever you want to them via their direct message. Some people have it set up so things are always sent to people that are following them. So if you're not following them, they're not going to send you things. So there's ways that you can grow your account that way, build your account that way. You don't want to overuse that. I have it on my account, but I don't overuse it. I only use that type of thing for certain types of content. I'm like, blog content every week would be too much, or a podcast every week would probably be too much, but they are popular, and the in the commenting, and then you're commenting, and then it that sends the messages that this is something that people are interested in. So more people are showing that piece of content. Sometimes you'll see a post where it has like, hundreds of comments, and it's only that thing that they're giving away. So if you're creating creating some really valuable lead magnet, that's a great way to to get the word out there. So just building engagement strategies. One thing is, you can't boost those posts. You can't edit or boost them once they're once you're using those the bots on that specific post, but communication, making sure that you're answering questions on your own post, of course, checking your direct messages and just really engaging with people you know, looking at the things that people are asking in your comments or direct messaging. You about using that as a post, if somebody sends you a question, like, hey, you know, Patty had a question about your last lead magnet. Did you mean x or x? You can take that little a screenshot of that and use that to create a post saying, you know, I created this lead magnet and somebody had a question. I thought maybe you might have it too. So, and then do the answer there, and then it links back to that person. It shows that people are interested in your content. Maybe someone else did have that question. Usually, if someone has a question, someone else had the same question. So, so yeah, so there's I'll just make sure the that you're building the community while you're working on doing your social posting, because I feel like the community and the connection are more important than ever, because there's just so many so too.

Patty Farmer: 00:53:23

Yeah, one of the things that I have found in the algorithm, at least specifically on Facebook, is one of the things, you know, people will like your post, right? They think they're helping you like. I mean, not that that's better than nothing, right? But really, it's much better when they leave a comment. It's even better if they share, right? But, I mean, they leave a content. But, you know, a lot of times people will just leave a comment and it'll say truth or,

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:53:46

You know, it's hard to comment a one word,

Patty Farmer: 00:53:49

One word thing. And I've been actually tracking that for a while now, and I have found that if you're going to leave somebody, and if you really want to help them, right? If you want to help somebody and you're going to leave them a comment, I have found that six words has kind of been the sweet spot, like, if whatever you say is six words, even if it's something like, oh, wow, I never thought of that. That's a different way of thinking of it, or something like that, right? You know, but they really like it if it's six words, I wonder, I wonder

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:54:21

If they have the algorithm set up, if it's a one word answer on Facebook that they don't really put any weight on it.

Patty Farmer: 00:54:28

I don't know, but I do. I have no like, six and seven. I feel like I've been tracking it, and six and seven seems to really be good. And even sometimes, people will share, or they'll go post it on their post, but they won't even say in the comments, oh, this was so great. I'm going to share this to my eyes, like, wow, should help them by saying that, right? You know? So I think that sometimes it's just not always thinking. But I'd really like kind of trying to train my clients in my community to say, say six words. I just it sounds hard to say six words. Leave a. Thoughtful comment.

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:55:00

If you're going to leave one, leave a thoughtful comment that adds them add some value.

Patty Farmer: 00:55:06

Well, first of all, that's why people are going to want to follow you, because you added some value to it. So I love that. So I have to tell you, Peg, this has been really, really great. And I always like to say that we always invite everybody to share something. And a lot of times people come bearing gifts, and that's always really great. But for you, you didn't have just a gift, you would literally have a whole resource page on your website, which I went to and downloaded myself, like, four different gifts. I mean that one gift of like, 300 call to actions, beautiful gifts. I was like, What a great gift and stuff, though. So what is your website, so people can go and grab all those fabulous resources and find out more about you and see how to connect with you and all the good stuff.

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:55:48

Uh, my my website is Peg fitzpatrick.com thank you so much. I saw that you downloaded things. I was like, awesome. I like to download people's things too and see what it's out there.

Patty Farmer: 00:55:58

But I always download anybody who's like, on my podcast, because, like, I feel like I might get some really great stuff out of there to ask questions, right?

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:56:04

Sorry, 300 calls to extra. That used to be 50, but I I added a whole bunch more. They are helpful. So if you guys are looking, if you're stuck on calls to exit, I got a great, I think, got a great lead magnet for it is

Patty Farmer: 00:56:13

And she had some other ones too that were really good. And so this is the marketing, media and money show, right? So I would like to say, you know, thank you so much for sharing, but if you had to narrow it down to your number one strategy that's working for you right now, like, what is working for you right now? What would that number one strategy be?

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:56:34

So it's working for me now, and it's been working for me for a long time, as my favorite which is leveraging Pinterest. Because when you create things for Pinterest, they last longer than other social posts. So if you have a piece of content, create a Pinterest size graphic of 1000 by 1500 and use SEO, use your search engine knowledge, and just use keywords in the title, in the description and on the graphic and link it back to whatever you want, your podcast, your blog post, your video, every single thing you create on Pinterest can actually link to something, even videos. So if you're creating short form videos for reels or anything else, make sure that you share them on Pinterest as a pin, and then you can put the link on there to whatever you want. So it's still, it's a long term powerhouse for me. You just want to make sure that you, like I said, use the keywords where you want to you know that you want people to go. So if it's for small businesses social media, you want to make sure that you're using those because it is they call themselves a discovery engine, not a search engine. People discover things that they they're looking for, and all of that helps more people find you and they're found in Google search.

Patty Farmer: 00:57:51

Now, I think that is a great tip. Thank you so much for sharing it. And she shared so much information, and we did kind of talk about her book, that she does have a book and and I will look below. If you're listening or replay or watching, whatever the case may be, you will see all of her things below, but you will also see the link to her book, The Art of small business social media, a blueprint for marketing success. So there is a link there. It's in pre order right now, right when is it being released?

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:58:18

November 19.

Patty Farmer: 00:58:19

November 19. And this is evergreen, so it's after November 19. It's already happening, you know. So that is really great. So thank you so much pig for being here. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you coming and sharing all your great tips and and strategy. And I'm sure that my audience loved it too.

Peg Fitzpatrick: 00:58:38

Thank you so much for having me, this is so fun.

Patty Farmer: 00:58:41

It was really fun my community. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like subscribe and review the podcast on your favorite listening platform. And also, have you ever checked out our sister product, our magazine, The marketing media Money Magazine, you can grab a free copy of that by going to m3 digital mag com. So m3digitalmag.com grab a copy of that too. In the meantime, we'll see you again next week. Thank you so much for joining us.