1645 – Getting Your Product Out There With Social Media with Oh Snap Social Karlyn Ankrom

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0:58with us right now carlin angstrom carlin you are the ceo of oh snap social you're found on the web at oh snap social.com carlin thank you so much for joining us thanks for having me josh i'm excited to be here yeah so give us an overview of what oh snap does who you work with and kind of what you do. Absolutely. So OSNAP Social is a boutique social media marketing agency based in the Northern Virginia area, but we have clients all over the country and hopefully eventually the world. We do work with associations, nonprofits that have funding, of course, as well as businesses, small, medium, who are purpose-driven.

1:44They are very clear in their mission. They have an impact to make on the world. And they just want the expertise of me and my team to amplify that outward, utilizing all of the different social media marketing platforms that are at our fingertips to do that. So that's really where our focus is getting driven this particular year. We have made a shift at the end of 2022 to be more intentional with who we are serving. And that's led us to those purpose-driven, mission-driven organizations and business owners. Yeah. What would be some examples of what that means, mission-driven, purpose-driven? Those are the ones that make an impact on people's daily lives, whether it's health, whether it's just making their homes better, safer.

2:34And if you think about it, a lot of businesses, you know, at the crux of it, are aiming to help make people's lives better. Uh, so I'm really thinking about those, you know, more small business owners that are like the HVAC companies, the trades that help make people's lives better, as well as the healthcare side of things, organization, wellness, um, science driven biotech. Uh, those are the folks that we really enjoy helping getting their, either their new product or innovation out there into the world, as well as MDs and PhDs who are writing their books, um, that need to get amplified out into the media, or they're appearing on podcasts and media, and they are not repurposing that on social.

3:15Shame on them. I know. They're not repurposing it to get their message out to the world, you know, in the big capacity that we can these days on social, which is incredible. So I like to do that for them or help them see the light and go do that for themselves. What are you most excited about right now in the, you know, of the world of social media, particularly for business owners or folks that are just trying to connect, maybe using social media to connect with clients? What trends are you seeing that you're like, oh, this is going to be fun to participate and watch? Yeah, it's funny because every day when Masseri goes live on Instagram or there's a new update from Zuckerberg and you're like, I kind of start to sweat a little bit because I'm like, okay, what now?

4:04Like, what's the plan? And it moves so fast. The trend that I'm still loving, it's not a new trend, but I still think it's new for a lot of business owners to really harness is the power of video and a power of like, not necessarily like the dancing, pointing, you know, lip singing, you know, content, but the ones that they're leaning in on their expertise where they're repurposing a podcast that they've been on or a media interview that they've done on local television. Leaning into their own expertise and truly showing up as who they are, not who the competition says that they need to be and or that guru down the street thinks that they should be.

4:43That's the biggest thing that I'm seeing from business owners who come to me, you know, for discovery calls and things like that is one, they're not entirely sure where they're starting from. So measuring the analytics that matter to them and their overarching goals and two, having a sound strategy to get them to that next point that they want to be in their business, and then advancing that through to that implementation and developing of content, organic or paid, depending, to get them to that next level. Because ultimately, social media is just a sliver of what our marketing objectives and tactics should be.

5:19Yeah. And I want to take your opinion. There's a few topics in social media I'd like your opinion on. For someone that's maybe just seen kind of the bombastic headlines around Twitter, what's just a very kind of objective, unbiased view of, yeah, here's kind of what we're experiencing with clients that maybe were dependent on Twitter and kind of how that's changed or evolved over the past. past six months and I don't know, kind of looking at the tea leaves, you know, how one might think about that platform? I love this question because Twitter right now at the time of this recording, right, is the wild, wild west in a lot of ways.

6:05I think if it's been working for you to amplify what you're already doing, continue to do so, but measure the metrics because you want to put, because Twitter, just like any platform, it moves extremely quickly and you have to be out there multiple times a day to get that traction. I think the worry for a lot of people right now, or the unknown is, okay, so we now have to pay for our content to get seen more to newer people that aren't necessarily following us yet. Like, what does that mean? And I think time will tell, but my biggest tip for people who are utilizing Twitter on the regular is to continue to keep up with it, watch the news, lean into blogs, like what I post out there every single week, and to get kind of that unbiased opinion from someone who's in the trenches every single day.

6:55But Twitter, I've seen a lot of people pause their Twitter efforts. I don't know if that's the right thing to do, because it's going to take you that much more time to get back up that momentum. So, you know, maybe it's pullback, maybe it's double down on a different platform until it figure out, it's figuring out what they do. I've even had some clients switch their strategy just for Twitter to be a place that they're engaging with their current clients and the media. That's it. Yeah. And it's a short form video, I think is, I want to talk about this just a little bit because I, that's recently we've kind of recommitted to that.

7:37Is there a way to do short, What would be some examples of ways to not do short form video that you're like, yeah, I don't think that's, or again, thinking of reels, stories, shorts, you know, that all those things, what would be an example of doing that poorly? And what would be a kind of a way of like, yeah, clients or folks that are doing this seem to be getting some decent engagement? So I would say if you can always create the reel with a talking head or actual original content, meaning your own video that you shot, the photos of that company picnic that you're going to post quickly up on Instagram or on LinkedIn as a fun, short video to show the company culture.

8:25My thing is void stock images and videos when possible. we don't always have a choice myself included at my agency because we are reliant a lot of times of us going collecting the content or our clients sending us the content right which is always why I say we're in partnership with each other client and our agency because we can't be you on video at least not yet AI hasn't quite gotten there yet right where I can be someone else on video but at the same time if all you have is one stock feed try it if that's what's holding you back from trying it, do it and see what happens. And then you're like, okay, this isn't so hard to get the mechanics of everything correct.

9:08Then, oh, now I can go and film something quick. And I would say, stop overthinking it. That's something that all my clients do. All of them. I'm like, stop overthinking. It's literally a 10 seconds, seven second short or real. It's there and gone. seven seconds of panning your office, seven seconds of, you know, taking a quick video of yourself, sharing a quick opinion, the more opinionated you can be, the better the polarizing topics within your industry tends to attract people towards you and repel people who aren't for you away from you, which is exactly what you want to do because you are not for everybody.

9:48Yeah. Another, obviously another huge, you know, headline maker and, you know, and, and it's been very exciting, is the use of AI tools and ChatGPT in particular. What have you been, or how have you been seeing this used effectively? Yes. So I think first caveat is it will never replace humans. That being said, I love it for really thinking about like the speed of the work in which I do, as well as ideating. Those are the two things that I use chat GPT for regularly. And I also use it as a leader of my business to help, uh, what's the word cushion, some more direct conversations I need to have with team members or clients.

10:33I'm a very direct human. Uh, I communicate very directly. And I think sometimes that like, it's like a little weird for people. And so I've been putting in some of those words inside chat GPT, what I want to say. And then it kind of comes up with a more, um, uh, well well-received version of that message that I'm trying to do. So that's number one. I use it for leadership all the time. If I don't have the words, how I exactly want it to sound, chat GPT helps me with that. And then ideation. I've used it to source national days very quickly. It's been awesome. Is it always right? No. Half the time I would say it's right.

11:15The other half, not so much. um i've also used it to repurpose content so if i know that tweet performed really well i will say write three versions of this tweet for me and it will write three different versions oh yeah yeah so that's been really great yeah just repurposing and speed and ideation mm-hmm um aside from uh and again i think there's been some rumblings of maybe some quote unquote Twitter competitors. But outside of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok, obviously YouTube, are there any others that maybe are lesser known platforms that you might say, keep your eye on this or this kind of platform?

12:08These may become a thing, anything that you can think of? I mean, I think there's always something going to be in the horizon. There's so many social platforms and I would even call some of them like more community platforms. Like in 2020 clubhouse was like exploded because we were all dying for that connection of, you know, just human to human interaction. So I think there's going to be more audio experiences that start to come out, which is why like podcasts, though an older format of media is just continually to progress and explode, which has been amazing. But something that I also would keep your eye on, which is a lesser known platform, it's been around for a while, is Pinterest.

12:53And I know that sounds like, what are you talking about? Pinterest? Like I can't remember the last time I pinned anything. Okay. But have you looked at your referral traffic on your website? If you have a Pinterest account. I just did this for a client when I did an audit. She's like, I don't think Pinterest is like a really main driver. We looked at her Google analytics, top referral traffic, Pinterest. She's like, we haven't pinned anything in two years. I'm like, the three pins that you had there are kind of having a viral component and they're creating traffic to your blogs consistently. So you might want to double check and look at that.

13:27um so i would say do that audit see where your resources are and where you're getting traffic that are hitting your goals and go from there but in terms of new ones there's a new one every week yeah right i definitely think and instagram then seems to mimic whatever that trend of you know app is coming but i think tiktok is going to be here unless the government decides not to have it be a thing um or you know a us-based company doesn't buy it which i'm hoping is the best case scenario. But yeah, you know, you and me both. When you are visiting with a potential client, how do you figure out if it's going to be a good fit together?

14:08You know, and I'm thinking kind of the discovery process and the value that you could potentially bring in combining forces with them. Absolutely. The first question, maybe not the first, maybe like the second or third question that I always ask clients is what does success look like on social media for you? And quickly, if they say, oh, I want 10 ,000 followers, or I want to go viral, or I want 100 ,000 views on every single reel from here on out, I'm going to be like, okay, not a fit. Because social media for better for worse is a long term game. You have to be willing to step up to the plate and strike out a few times to learn in order to shift and move those strategies.

14:50because that's all social media is. Like I know in sales, people say like ABC always be curated or ABC always be closing. In social, we say ABC always be curious. Like put on like that lab coat, roll up the sleeves like and get creative. And the better content that you put out there that addresses the pain points of your audience, the more engagement you're going to get, the more inquiries you're going to get. But if you try to be everyone else, it's very evident to your audience that you're trying to be someone or another company that you're not because we get served all these ads every single day and content consistently we're very good at reading between the lines so as much as I have a love-hate relationship with the word authenticity um show up as who you are and who you're meant to be and your authentic self and people will gravitate towards you um but if you try to show up as someone else they're gonna be like, who is this person?

15:49And they're going to leave. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We all know when it's insincere and it does. It feels icky. You know, one other thing that I thought was kind of interesting this year is in the past, being able to get the blue checkmark used to be so coveted. And now it's really kind of weird who has it. And it's almost like, why? You know, it's what a 180 I think that's done. But what's your opinion on kind of quote unquote verification and, you know, the kind of the blue check mark? I think it's interesting. I have the blue check on Instagram because I keep getting clients asking me about, is it worth it?

16:31Is it worth it? Is it worth it? So I'm like, I'm going to test it for six months and see if it's worth it. So far, not worth it. Like right now, I think I'm three months in, so I have another three to go. I just don't think it's worth it. I don't think my content gets shown to more people. That's the reason originally that I was like, oh, if it gives me more reach, why wouldn't I? But at the same time, now that's a thing that they're like, oh, nevermind. We're taking that part of the blue check away on Instagram. Nevermind. Like it'll just make you feel authoritative. I'm like, well, I don't need that.

17:06I feel like my audience already comes to me who like, you know, if they like me, They're going to come to me and listen to what I have to say. So blue check or not, that doesn't matter to them. So, and I also think at the same time it diminishes. Yeah. The perceived value of it is now just kind of like, okay, why? And it's, to me, it's become a mark of, okay, no, you must be someone that is, you know, just kind of seen in the world as, as having valuable content or someone that's got some decent authority. And that's been verified, which I had that on Twitter. And it got taken away for, okay, for no reason.

17:44I'm not going to pay. But then it's like, well, you know, I picked up, you know, as because I'm a working, I've been a working journalist for 15 years. So I legitimately, I've been trying to get it for Facebook. But now it's like, I don't know, I agree with you. I don't see the point. I think it just kind of looks like, okay you're really wanting to work like social media that's the only thing that communicates to me now it's yeah i think you're right yeah i think there's something to that and i think it diminishes those people who had it yeah like which is too bad quote unquote earned it versus paid for it and then there was a really interesting conversation happening in marie smith's facebook group about this for the facebook side of things and what she was saying is she hasn't gotten the blue check mark for her personal profile which is where they were giving giving out the checks she's like because they said that I would lose it on my business page so she's like they're making me choose between the two which doesn't make sense so she's like I'm just gonna keep how I was because also if you transition over and then try to go back it won't happen so it's kind of like weighing your options um and also at the same time navigating all the kooky rules that exist or don't exist or they change just because they want to and I think that's a a big thing for a lot of us is be like we are not in control of what the platforms do or don't do and we just have to embrace it the good bad and ugly uh and know that if you know zuck tomorrow is like you know what this has been fun i'm i'm out i'm gonna go sail off in my yacht we're good here one the mass hysteria that that would cause like i don't want to see that day but at the same time it's just a reality check for a lot of us to start to build your email list start to build other platforms, start to build podcasts, like build an audience in other ways.

19:57Because if they were to disappear tomorrow, like would you still be able to kind of still have that pipeline, that business? And that's why I always say social media is just a sliver of what you do in terms of your overall marketing tactics. Yeah. Your website, osnapsocial.com, someone that's listening to our conversation right now, what would you recommend they do? Definitely go check out the services page if you're interested in kind of an audit or strategy, as well as the resources. I have too many, probably, resources for you to download for absolutely free. And there's also two paid ones on there.

20:35but things about how to create your first reel, how to create capturing calls to action to get people to actually do something with the content that you're putting out there. So loads of resources for you to check out. And then once you do, hit me up and tell me if you liked it or not. Carlin Ancrum, again, CEO of Osnap Social, your website, osnapsocial.com. Carlin, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.

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