SPECIAL SERIES ==> Followers Don't Matter Anymore! <== | BATHROOM Break #54 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

0:07Welcome to a new special series called the bathroom break that extra 10 minutes you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom or both but i don't recommend both but that's your choice this collab is going to be super fun we have daniel murray from the marketing millennials and me jay schwettleson from the do this not that podcast and subjectline.com each episode in the series we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics and if you want to be in the bathroom fine just don't tell us about it thanks for checking it out we are back with another episode of the bathroom break i'm here with the jay schwedowson of do this not that podcast and guru events and i'm daniel murray of the marking millennials podcast and i want to start off because jay had a procedure this week and i want to ask how he's feeling that's actually a good like this procedure ties into our podcast yeah i know it does because I had a colonoscopy, which is the ultimate bathroom break.

1:09So first off, PSA, everyone get one. It's not a big deal. But the funniest thing happened. It was yesterday. So I'm in the bed thing, the gurney thing. And there's like that sheet thing that separates you from the person next to you before you go in for the procedure. And I overhear. The doctor walks over to the dude next to me. And they go, we understand you're taking Ozempic. And the guy's like, yeah, I am. And they said to him, but didn't you read all the stuff that you need to stop Ozempic like 10 days prior? or else it's a problem. He goes, no, I missed all that. And the doctor goes, well, here's the story.

1:41We can still do the colonoscopy, but we can't give you anesthesia. And the guy's like, what are you talking about? You gave me anesthesia. He's like, yeah, you can't do it if you're on a Zempic or any of those things. And the guy's like, so what do you, what does that mean? He's like, you know, you could do it. We do it for some people because, you know, they don't like anesthesia or whatever. And the guy's like, what? Like, is that, is that okay? Is it hurt? And the doctor goes, it's like someone kicking you incredibly hard in your nuts that's what he said i'm saying they're losing it and the guy goes all right scale one to ten how much does it hurt he's like a four and the guy just goes let's do it let's roll i got this so then i go into recovery afterwards and the guy comes out he's like sitting next to me i'm like how was it he goes that was not a party and i was like i love this guy oh my goodness that was the best thing yeah actually that's a good psa if you're are on a zempick like you you can have anesthesia because you get choked because yeah you know they actually said we're having this problem people are coming in after their prep like so much now and they don't know about it i'm like why don't they call everybody and confirm it like two weeks prior because a lot of people are on this stuff anyway exactly that was amazing i don't know what we're talking about but we're going to get into this episode which is all about this idea of putting garbage out on social and what's the best way to run paid social and all of it.

3:04So Daniel, what do you think about social media these days? The biggest thing is I think people are still sleeping on social media in 2025. We're in a era where you don't need a following to grow on social media. And that's one of the biggest shifts that happened in social media. So if you post things, most algorithms now, TikTok, IG Reels are intent algorithms. So they will serve people content that they will like. So if they like tennis, they'll say tennis content. If you're marketing, they'll serve marketing content. So if you're not investing budget on putting out good creative on social media, you are going to lose in the long run because people who are doing this can now put paid dollars around something that they know works in the algorithm so it's basically a double bonus that you're boosting something that you know people will like and you're putting it in the algorithm so i wanted to start kicking off there that you don't need like the new strategy people are going out on social media right now and you see some brands do this, ClickUp's doing this.

4:22A lot of brands are doing this where they have multiple social media accounts now on TikTok, multiple on IG, because they know that they could put a video on a 10-person following account and it will go viral because the algorithm just wants to serve content to people who will stay on the platform. So that's where the biggest thing is that you don't need a following. But where I'm going through this is you need to invest in creative that is successful and learn algorithms and learn how to make creative that has a hook, that tells a story, that keeps people on the platform. But I wanted to start off with that.

5:01And then Jay, you can add on to it. Yeah, I think it's really important. I would not be surprised in the years to come if actually some of the platforms even eliminate showing follower counts. Because to Daniel's point, The algorithm is everything. I'll give you a real-time example. So I just started a YouTube channel. I've told nobody about it. I have like 10 subscribers, but we're going to make it big or whatever. So we put out our first few videos, and each of our first few videos got like 1 ,500 views. Now, that's not a lot, but when you have 10 followers, that's a ridiculous amount. And it's only because the algorithm picked up on the content.

5:35It's no longer about how big is your follower count, and that's what's going to get you the circulation. So what you really need to be thinking about is spending some money on your creative, putting out really good content. And then, Daniel, what would you do? So you put out IG Reels, you put out LinkedIn posts, you put out stuff on TikTok. And then you see some that are starting to pick up the pace, are starting to do well. What do you do with the ones that are doing well? Yeah, so there's a couple of things I do. One, I'll go the organic route first. The organic route is one is you see the things that are working, making them in another format.

6:09So now that AI is here, you can go to ChatGPT and make an image with a quote of what you just said. You can remix it into a static post. You can make a video about it. So whatever content you see is picking up in the algorithm, double down on that. Two, this is a strategy I heard from my friend who he owns a hat company called Dad Gang. And what he does to boost the most successful posts that he sees on IG. So what he'll do is just put ad dollars to optimize for profile visits because he knows if he builds these following of intent for people who care about his content, he will one, it's good social proof.

6:56And two, he's getting more and more eyeballs on his name and his product. So that's the third thing. Fourth thing is I would figure out how to make that into the messaging, the same type of video, into creative for your paid ads. So your meta ads, your Pinterest ads, your TikTok ads. Take the winning creatives. Learn what the platform likes in formatting. But if the messaging and the tone and the pain point works, it's going to work on ads more than just putting out random creative and just guessing and just spending money to guess that this messaging is going to work. You know, and something we're doing with our agency clients, we're doing two things.

7:42One is with almost every client that we have now, we're having them have a boost budget, like a weekly boost budget, which means that there is a line item now in their marketing budget just for boosting successful organic content that's being posted on the different platforms. And I think more and more companies should be having a boost budget because paid boosting of successful organic content is the absolute best way to really have things take off. So if you're not boosting your best organic stuff, I think you're really missing the boat. And then the other thing is having budget for alternative platforms.

8:18And they're not even alternative. But we are seeing a lot of success with Reddit ads and with Pinterest ads. and the reason that we're seeing so much success and that's for business marketers and consumer marketers even on pinterest business is working b2b believe it or not but especially on reddit the ad cost there is a fraction of meta it's a fraction of linkedin it's a fraction of everything else because they're trying desperately to get market share as they're trying to ramp up if you're not doing stuff on reddit and pinterest you're not testing i think you're missing the boat on some of the cheapest inventory that exists yeah and going on that point is i think every single marketer if you don't have 10 to 20 percent of your budget in testing there's something wrong like you're you're gonna it's you're gonna fail because even with the if you go to finance and say hey 10 percent of my marketing budget or 20 percent of my marketing budget is testing budget they're going to consider it testing budget and if you say 100 percent of my budget's going to meta they're going to expect that to perform so you could take once you see testing budget is successful then you could start moving it into like that at that 80 budget like testing pinterest testing reddit if it's going to work if it starts being successful then you could start putting more ad dollars because you prove the test has worked finance likes when you prove a test works and then you move it into your 80 % of your budget that you have for marketing.

9:51All right, before we wrap up here, I want to ask you randomness. So you're on TikTok more than I am because I'm an old loser. Give us some TikTok accounts that you like to follow, that are fun to follow, that are whatever. It can be random. I want to know the Daniel Murray favorite TikTok accounts. This is a bad answer because I don't, TikTok has such an intent, And this is actually, you set this question up well, because TikTok is such a tent-based platform that I watch the content for whatever is on my algorithm I'm watching. I don't go and look and say, this person, I need to go see what they're following.

10:27I forget who I'm looking at. And I bet most of you forget, if you're on TikTok, who the actual account was, unless it's like Alex Earl or something like that. You probably are forgetting that that's account. but I do get fed a lot of like tennis channel like Wimbledon F1 like those accounts I do get fed those and I'll go scroll on like tennis but I don't look at who I'm following on TikTok I just wait for the algorithm to I only only time I really am on TikTok when there are stupid trends like I'm so hungry I could eat you know John Hamm you know that trend where I'm so hungry I like going whenever there's something really stupid I like going on and watching all the videos and then i got lost i got sucked in and i i know that now wait wait wait wait you got to tell the story about what your daughter did to you oh yeah my daughter walks into the room i didn't know about this i'm so hungry trend and she walks in my wife and she goes um oh you know what what's for dinner i'm so hungry i could eat steve martyr and steve martyr is like a fraternity brother of mine from a zillion years ago if you're out there steve what up my guy and i was like what what the f are you talking about like like what what and she's like videoing the whole thing she goes yeah steve marty i'm so hungry i could eat him i'm like what like what actually just came out of your mouth and i i had no idea i i was so confused and that's why i love that trend is so and then he tried to pull it on me like i didn't know and then i was like i was like i know the trend and he said a random person we both know i'm not going to mention it on here but yeah well Well, thank you for listening to our ridiculous show.

12:05I really appreciate it. And please, if you like this show, go tag us on Instagram and we'll share it or go give Jay Do This Not That podcast a review. And this is going well. Later. Daniel, come on, man. I got to get back to work. Get out of there. While he's still in there, this is Jay. Check out my podcast, Do This Not That for marketers. Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing and hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out. Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Mark and Millet podcast, but also tune into this series.

12:43It's once a week, the bathroom break. We talk about marking tips that we just spew out and it could be anything from email, subject line to any marking tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out. Later.