Mitzi Payne, Partner at Arcade Studios is a digital marketer and social media expert committed to helping brands engage with the online world. Armed with a journalism degree and a strong desire to make the internet a better place, Mitzi jumped into the world of marketing in 2010. From growth hacking for an online EdTech platform, to launching a website and digital marketing strategy at a luxury lifestyle magazine, to managing a community of die-hard Indie Rock fans, and even covering the U.S. presidential election in Washington, D.C., Mitzi has spent her entire career staying on the pulse of social media. When she's not staring at her phone, Mitzi is spending quality time with her husband and 1-year old daughter and running away to the mountains.
Morgan Berna is the host of Olympia Benefits’ podcast, The Small Business Mastermind. Her background is in marketing, journalism, and broadcasting. Passionate about small business, she aims to create content that inspires and educates listeners.
Mitzi Payne: I think that there is a place for social media in almost every business or service.
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Morgan Berna: You are listening to The Small Business Mastermind, a podcast created to help small businesses juggle business finance, health, and wellness. I am your host Morgan Berna.
The Small Business Mastermind is brought to you by Olympia Benefits. To learn how you can save on your health and dental costs, visit olympiabenefits.com.
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Morgan: Hello, and thank you for tuning into this episode. For this one, we have brought back social media expert Mitzi Payne to walk us through setting up and running a successful social media strategy for a small business. She gives insight into what types of companies social media works best for which platforms to focus on how to create content that really engages your audience and which metrics to keep an eye on as well. We talked about her experience with working on the social media for John Krasinski's some good show and her experience running social media accounts during 2020. It is a great episode to really show the potential social media has for almost any type of business. So, if you do not yet have a solid social media strategy or could use some advice on improving what you currently have, this is going to be a great episode for you. I hope you enjoy this one and I will be checking in with you again at the end of the episode.
[interview begins]
Morgan: Welcome Mitzi, thank you again for joining us here on The Small Business Mastermind.
Mitzi: Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here.
Morgan: For this episode, we have brought back Mitzi Payne who is a partner at Arcade Studios and a co-host of the Waves Social Podcast. She is a digital marketer and social media expert committed to helping brands engage with the online world. Armed with a journalism degree and a strong desire to make the internet a better place. Mitzi jumped into the world of marketing in 2010 from growth hacking for an online Ed-Tech platform to launching a website and digital marketing strategy at a Luxury Lifestyle Magazine to managing a community of die-hard indie rock fans and even covering the US Presidential election in Washington DC. Mitzi has spent her entire career staying on the pulse of social media. When she is not staring at her phone Mitzi is spending quality time with her husband and one-year-old daughter and running away to the mountains. For more information about Mitzi, please check out the links in the podcast description.
Yes, and I am excited we are talking today about one of your specialties which is social media marketing and we are going to be talking about it in the context of a small business that has either dabbled in this or they are looking to get started. So, we are going to go over some of the basics. We will go into a little bit more depth with some areas here, but it is really going to be what a company needs to basically a jump-off point.
Mitzi: Sounds awesome.
Morgan: Okay, so let us start off with can any business or service leverage social media as a component of their marketing?
Mitzi: I mean, I am definitely biased but yes, I think that almost every business can benefit from using social media as part of their marketing toolkit especially if you are in B2C, it is like a no-brainer. But I think there are even some great use cases and great opportunities for B2B as well. I think at the very core social media should always inform, entertain, or inspire. I think almost every single business needs to do one of those things especially small businesses in order to reach their audience. So, for some businesses where it is not necessarily B2C and it is not necessarily an easy lifestyle angle. There are still creative ways to use social media and even like for services too, I think there is a great opportunity to be demonstrative but even for online services, it is a great opportunity to educate. So yes, I think that there is a place for social media in almost every business or service.
Morgan: Absolutely in keeping in mind you said educate, inspire, entertain, correct?
Mitzi: Yes, absolutely.
Morgan: Do you think that certain social media channels work better for certain industries over others?
Mitzi: I mean, it is hard to say. I do think that B2C is a great space for social media. It is really easy to create content for B2C on social media. But I do not think it is impossible for B2B businesses to have the same approach. One great example of that would be Later, which is a platform for small business owners to schedule their content on Instagram. They are essentially doing B2B marketing but they are doing it in like a B2C approach which definitely takes some creative thinking, but I think they are doing such a good job of that and a big part of that approach is through education. I think there is a certain kind of platform for almost every single business. I do not think every business needs to adopt the same social media approach or strategy and I was really trying to think hard about any kind of businesses that would not translate well on social media, and they are very few and far between but I think maybe a challenge and this could be a challenge for myself is some of those once in a lifetime kind of services may be life insurance or funeral services, all those kind of businesses that might be tricky. But I think almost everything else there is a place for businesses to use social media well.
Morgan: Yes, maybe it just does not work for something where you only purchase it once.
Mitzi: Yes.
Morgan: And you never renew, or go back anything.
Mitzi: Yes, and it maybe has some connotations of death or a tragedy or something like that. It is not really a space that people you want to market through social media but I think, yes, almost every B2B business, I think there is a way to make social media work for them, and it seems it is a lot easier for B2C as well.
Morgan: Simply, how would you recommend a business get started?
Mitzi: I think they first need to decide who they want to speak to. So, I think that will dictate where you go to speak to those people because social media platforms, they each have their own different use case. They each have their own unique audiences like the audience on Facebook is might be different from who you are targeting on Instagram and who you are targeting on TikTok. I do not think any business needs to feel the pressure to be an all this platform at the same time. I think they first need to decide who they are going to speak to, who is their target audience and get really granular, where do they shop and what it is their age groups, and what is their income, and what is there like all those kind of behavioral points are important. And then from there, you can match the platform to those people and that is going to just make all of it like any resources you allocate is just going to be way more efficient when you are speaking to the right people on the right platform. I would say that is the first place to start and then once you identify who you want to speak to and you can compare them to the platform, then it is all about creating content and that is the fun stuff where you can be creative and test things and try things out. But yes, I think the best place to start is to think about who you are trying to reach and who you are trying to speak to.
Morgan: I feel like it can be difficult because it feels like a business should be present on everything especially in TikTok came out this year, it felt like everyone should jump on. It such a great opportunity but that is a good point to kind of focus on one to start or one or two.
Mitzi: Yes, I mean, you could be doing the best TikTok videos and out one of them go viral and spend so much time trying to target your audience that does not even use the platform. I think it is important to just maybe scale back, do not feel the pressure to do all of these platforms at the same time do them all well. But think about where do does your target audience actually lives and where do they consume content, and then just go there and create content that works for them. If you do not know, I would recommend that anyone listening should ask their customers. Ask them where and what platforms they use and which ones they spend their free time on, and then get a feel for what kind of content that they like, and then I think asking your customers is something that people do not do enough of. So I think that is also a great place to start if you have existing customers.
Morgan: Yes, it was going to say if your customers are not big social media users but you want to make sure you are having a presence to grab future customers.
Mitzi: Totally. I think yes, if your customers are not big social media users or they say they are not because I think everyone is on social media. Then I think you have to think, remember to keep the long game in mind. So your existing customers might not be but that does not mean that there is no potential for future customers to find you through social media. So even if you are thinking or if you are seeing your customers and if they are not necessarily your target audience right now, it should still be something you think about is who do you want to target to. And then still do your best on those platforms if that makes sense. So even if your existing customers are not there, there is so much potential to still have some sort of presence on some platform even if it is just educating. Even if it is just educating about what you do and just do that even for on a certain platform. Not on every platform but maybe pick one or two or three that you think is where your target audience lives.
Morgan: I think since the COVID started I have been using social media pretty much for shopping which has gotten out of control. [laughs]
Mitzi: Nice. Nice.
Morgan: But I found so many new businesses just from that and I never would have found them just Googling.
Mitzi: Totally. Yes, social media is the frontline of your business. It is the tool for discovery so by saying my existing customers are not on social media and so I do not need to be, you are really saying no to future customers. It is important to think of the long game when you are evaluating what platforms to invest in.
Morgan: Do you have any small businesses whose social media you love people you are seeing that are using it in unique ways?
Mitzi: Yes, actually it is funny that you mentioned the rise of COVID. There is one small business that I am obsessed with on social media. It is mainly one lady her-- the county is called Go Clean Co, so G-O C-L-E-A-N C-O.
Morgan: Okay.
Mitzi: It is a cleaning service from Calgary and at the start of COVID they had to, of course, stop going to people's homes and cleaning. I watched this whole process happen, but the owner of that business decided to instead of taking a break during this COVID time. We are just waiting for the okay to start cleaning homes again. She started cleaning or teaching people how to clean through Instagram and it is so amazing and so engaging, and she does step-by-step and really dumbed it down for you and she is kind of snarky too, so it is funny to watch her. And then she starts doing these like Adulting 101 Zoom parties and she would max them out and you would have to pay to attend them. But during the Zoom party, she would pretty much spend two hours cleaning her home and answering questions and teaching people how to do it. And she called it Adulting 101 because she thinks millennials do not know how to clean their homes which I do not know if that is true or not. [laughs]
Morgan: Or not. [laughs] I guess.
Mitzi: I think it was a combination of the great timing because everyone was cleanliness is top of mind for everyone right now and then also just the way she approached her pivot was something that I really have to give her props for because it is not easy. As a small business owner to see having to close your doors essentially and she just took it in stride, and now her kind has grown I think she was like 800,000 followers. And she also partnered with an influencer during the time, and she teaches her how to clean her helmet. It was really fun to watch.
Morgan: Really smart. Yes.
Mitzi: And then another one that I really admire is called Paper and Coin. They kind of started as an, I guess they are in the magazine. It is a finance magazine again for millennials, so Instagram is a big part of their social media strategy. And they also do finance coaching and finance classes, and I think what I really admired about what they did is during COVID they were the resource for any information around the stimulus package and what small businesses can and can not get in terms of government support. And it was just like they were just on top of it and everything was delivered with so much polish like everything just kind of fits their aesthetic beautifully so I think that is an important part of Instagram. I know the work that it takes to make things look beautiful but especially taking all the resources and translating them into those assets, and having them online within hours they are released. I think they were really intentional and smart about that and so they were my go-to resource during that time and they are still doing a great job now.
Morgan: This reminded me, I follow a lady on Instagram who does manicures…
Mitzi: Oh nice.
Morgan: …She opened her own business and she pivoted out of working for another company and opened her own business. I think two weeks before she got shut down so horrible, horrible timing but what she did was she knew it was going to be a while till she could open again. So she started selling nail removal kits and doing videos about taking care of your nails at home and things like that in started because she bought all this product to open her shop and she just basically became like an e-commerce shop through the first couple months there. And that was really neat.
Mitzi: Yes, that is so smart. That so smart of her instead of just sitting back and watching too. I really admire business owners who took this hard and difficult moment especially in their business to pivot and try to be proactive and build awareness about their brand and offer value without the even hope of getting anything back for a while. I think that was really something that I buy from Go Clean Co because she, I mean, she was able to obviously earn a bit through her Zoom things and she also did like a handout that people could buy. But I think it just takes a different level of thinking of forward-thinking just try to keep the momentum going on a social platform when there is no opportunity to run your business as usual. I think social media is a great place for brands to do that and especially small businesses.
Morgan: Yes, a lot of anticipating needs. It sounds like-- So on that topic that actually brings me to my next question a mistake. I have seen a lot of businesses make is when they start running their social media. They just post a lot about themselves like this is what we are doing today, this is what we are selling and it does not get a lot of engagement. People do not really have much to post on that because it is kind of just company-centric info. I guess what do you think about that first and then do you have suggestions on how businesses can go beyond just posting up themselves into posting something more social that opens up a conversation and brings people to their business more?
Mitzi: Yes, definitely. I think a few things have happened over the last few months obviously with COVID and just the political climate that we are in. It is impacted the way people engage on social media and I think for brands they really have to for it is really important for brands to highlight their followers and their customers as the main person to speak to and then the most important person in their business. So instead of making their business and most important that part of their business in terms of what they are sharing on social, it needs to be their customers and it needs to be the stories behind the lives that they are impacting. And it really because I think everyone right now we are scrolling through our feeds and we are thinking like why does this matter to me? And so as a business we have also had to think about that like why would anyone care about this thing about me like it really should be about them. I think highlighting customer stories and stories of people, I think is a great way to pivot and post something different, and take the focus off of you and yourself and what is happening within the walls of your business but it also helps paint the picture of what your business can do for someone. When you focus on someone's story and how their life got better because they were your customer or they engage you in service or whatever it is that also highlights you too. I think it is just a bit of a shift in focus but I think it is what people want to see heart right now. They want to feel real emotions and stories so that people-- I think there is a huge opportunity for that and I have seen small businesses not really capitalize on that or do that well. I would love to see a shift of people doing that more so like moving forward.
Morgan: Yes, the storytelling aspect is really important. I find personally is like a big social media user that is how I find trust in brands is when they are giving me a reason to have an emotional attachment to them, and then maybe then I am more likely to go look at what their actual product is.
Mitzi: Totally. Yes, and that is why influencer marketing is so important and I think that is another strategy that businesses can keep in their tool belt because influencer marketing is basically partnering with someone who is a trusted source to their community and their audience. So, by parting with them, automatically feels more authentic, more like a testimonial, and more trustworthy. So, that could be another strategy that could also be an opportunity to not just post on your feed but also capture a whole new audience it is following someone else. If there are ways that would work for your business and it does not work for every business but it works for a lot of businesses, I think that would be an awesome way to take the focus again off of you and onto someone else's story.
Morgan: We did an episode about influencer marketing with them someone local from Calgary.
Mitzi: Thanks.
Morgan: She was talking about how it really works for services, products kind of any type of business as well. It just needs to feel like an authentic match, the person, the influencer needs to actually seem interested in what they are promoting.
Mitzi: Definitely. Yes, and if I mean influencer marketing might not be the route for everyone. Maybe it is just highlighting a customer story but really doing it in a way where it is focused on the person. So for example, if you are a contractor, you know highlighted a client that you have had and get them to give you like a testimonial or even a video interview of how they feel when they walk into their space like really highlight yet that emotion. I think that is a home run, I mean, if I were following that might be I want to get that feeling too. It does not have to be an influencer if it is genuine and authentic, and it is coming from a customer who maybe does not have a ton of followers. I think that is still valuable.
Morgan: Absolutely. I want to just mention for everyone listening too, we did an episode with Mitzi and her partner Mike all about content marketing. So that one has a ton of information to actually go into what types of content to be producing. I will make sure that is linked in the description below as well.
Mitzi: Nice.
Morgan: Yes, how often do you think a business should be posting? I know this is something that becomes a big pain-point for companies is just being able to keep it up once you actually start using social media.
Mitzi: Yes, I think it depends on the platform that you are posting or that you are sharing content on.
So, for Instagram, we always recommend at least five in feed posts and at least three to five stories per week. And I think stories are really important for Instagram because Instagram is tracking two different types of users. There are people who scroll through their feed and there are people who just scroll through their stories and ignore their feed. So I think that is why it is important to do both and if you can not keep up with five in your feed and you can not with, sorry, if you can not keep up with doing five posts in your feed and stories, then I would do less in feed posts and more stories. And then the other thing with Instagram is if you are going to spend time if that is a platform of priority for your business. Then I highly recommend that you try to find other features within the app to use because Instagram loves when you use their features, especially their new ones that actually do give you a bit of an algorithm bump when you use some of their latest features first. So any opportunity to use Reels is really important which is their newest feature or any custom. AR filters are great or anyway, you can include they photo stickers or countdown stickers. All of that stuff I think if you are doing less, doing more of those in at features would be really important.
And then for Facebook, I think I do not typically, I mean, we communicate this to our clients. We do not see Facebook as a social platform. We see it as an advertising platform not simply because Facebook does not give businesses any organic traction so it is a pay-to-play zone. And so for that reason, I think posting frequency is less important because what matters is how much you are boosting it for because people would not see what you are posting unless you are boosting it. Anyways, you can kind of get away with doing less on Facebook feed as long as you are boosting it so efficiently and it does not have to have a huge budget. We recommend five to ten dollars per boost or if it is a key part of your strategy then doing a bigger boost for that would be great.
And then for Twitter, like, Twitter moves so fast. It is the shortest life span of any social platform. So definitely you will have to post a lot more frequently on there. But I think it is more important on Twitter to not only just post more but also engage more. The algorithm on Twitter rewards like retweets and retweets his comments and getting likes so the goal is to try to get like clicks on your tweets and then engagement on your post. So that means that your copy has to be snappier, it has to be a bit more engaging and trying to do threads that kind of think is important. If that means doing a bit less than that is okay as long as the content that you are sharing is snappier and that the great thing about Twitter is that it is very rare that people just go and read through your feed. If you like have a great tweet that did really well and it is not super timely. It is something that you can do purpose like a week later that is all good and fair for Twitter. I think it is just about like snappy short and frequent posts for Twitter.
Morgan: And a lot of people repost their tweets to their Instagram I find.
Mitzi: Yes, so I think that is a great one. If you have got a great tweet that went out and got lots of engagement. It has a statement and it can stand on its own, I think sharing it on Instagram is great. It also shows people that you are on this other platforming and case it did not know. But I think when people do that the content or the tweet is often really shareable or savable. So if it is not, I would not do that but if it is and definitely try to repurpose it on other platforms.
Morgan: And then do you have any advice for any business that might be using TikTok?
Mitzi: Yes, I think as a TikTok user and we have clients on TikTok, I think it really depends on what kind of business. If you are a product then I think it really a great place for a product to shine on TikTok because people can take videos with your product and share it and you can leverage Instagram influencers which are really affordable right now. So it is a great space for that. If you are a service it is a little trickier to demonstrate that on TikTok. So I think a better route would be to partner with an influencer who can speak to that and then maybe you do not necessarily need a full TikTok feed or full TikTok strategy, instead, you just piggyback on other influencers that way.
Morgan: Yes, okay. So using people who are already on TikTok and kind of working with them.
Mitzi: Yes, exactly.
Morgan: Yes, just in general, you are mentioning there that you would favor using say Instagram stories over the feed. How does the importance of likes tie in here or the amount of followers? Because again that can be something that people get quite stressed about but is it really how big of an impact does that really have on your overall page's performance?
Mitzi: Yes, I do not think that likes really matter at all anymore. The only thing that I think matters is engagement and likes contributes to your engagement rate. So in fact like in the US they have removed likes entirely so it is more of like an internal metric for you to measure to make sure that your account is healthy. So I think and the same goes with followers, I mean, lots of people have large followings with almost zero engagement and that is not an unnecessarily healthy account. I do not think we need to be in the sprint to get followers or sprint's to get likes. I think what is more important is engagement and a healthy engagement rate would be about 3% to 5%. If you can stay within that 3% to 5% your goal then if you are higher, you have a very healthy account and I would rather have a smaller following with a healthy engagement rate than about following with almost zero engagement. I think yes, people should focus less on followers and likes and more on the engagement are getting.
Morgan: Well, it makes me think of even just a physical store would you rather have a hundred people just staring at your products or ten people buying products I guess?
Mitzi: Totally. Yes, I think almost every business owner would say yes, we want the customers or we want the people who actually are interested in our brand. They do not want to just get views and the thing is like followers on Instagram do not necessarily mean that all those people are seeing or getting your content the way the algorithm works. It is based on what you are engaging with or the kinds of accounts that you like. If someone followed your business, maybe during a photo campaign that you did but has not engaged with your business or any similar kind of product or brand since they are not seeing any of your content ever. So it really does not matter.
Morgan: If you are not getting-- if a lot of your followers are not engaging, do you get punished in any way?
Mitzi: I do not think you get punished. I think you just have like it is just harder to build up that engagement again. So you kind of have to start with a small pool of people and get really active on your own account by engaging with people or creating content or campaigns that spark engagement. If you are at that place where you have tons of followers and none of them are you have a very low engagement rate than I would first evaluate followers. If there is any of them that are bots that you could remove? I highly recommend removing them as a follower and then starting to think of ways that you can build that engagement with your social presence to kind of kick that that momentum off again.
Morgan: Yes, just social media. It is been around for a decent while now and I have personally been noticing a bit of a shift in the way people are using it. I am curious from the business perspective, do you see a shift happening with what people are wanting from businesses on social media changes in just the general climate?
Mitzi: Yes, I mean, it is been a tough year and I think with the rise of COVID and call-out culture and all that comes with that people are more critical of brands and have higher expectations of brands than ever before. So every dollar that a business earns through social media or through engagement or something is a huge win. I think people really kind of what I was saying earlier, they need to put themselves in the customers in the driving seat and keep them tough of mind whenever they are creating content because right now people want to see how you are making the world better. And I know that is a huge lofty aspirational and kind of cheesy line but it is truly people want to vote with their dollars today and people want to see the evidence of that on social media. So, however, whatever you are doing to change your corner of the world no matter how small it is, I think that is worth highlighting and honestly from a brand play whether we are in this climate or not, I think that is the way to go in general. Like, how are you making your customer's lives better like a highlight that because that is what people really want to see right now and I think that is what is best for your brand. Anyways, so yes, the behavior has changed. Expectations are so much higher now but I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing.
Morgan: It ties into what you were saying to with some of the accounts you saw pivoting into being more of an educational platform. Yes, bringing something more to the table for their followers.
Mitzi: Yes, doing more than just sharing what their services are they are not going to get anything out of showing people how to clean but they are the leaders when it comes to cleanliness. So as soon as they were able to book, they were like jam impact. It is thinking more about the long-term again and also putting your customers and your followers in the driver's seat and think about what would benefit their lives? What would they-- can we create that would make them come back and how can we give them tips to make their lives better or how can we inspire them or how can we make them laugh? All of that content people are that is what they need from brands right now, and that is really how brands can make a difference in social media right now.
Morgan: Absolutely, so you manage and work with companies with their social media. I am curious to hear what your experience has been like this year with all the changes and I would love to hear your experience with some good news and how that kind of got started.
Mitzi: Yes, definitely. I think when COVID first became a thing when we got the shutdown order and no one could leave their homes. I think within that week we lost five clients and they were not huge clients but it was an almost an overnight thing. We went from losing 25% or more of our business and, of course, every other business owner, we had these questions like how is going to impact our business and what do we do? And do we need to brace ourselves for making hard decisions, and so I think one thing that I am thankful that we did and had the foresight to do is we spoke up and my partner Mike and I created this little video talking about how this is the time to make the most of the digital tools that you have and if you do not have them reach out and will help you create them. And so I think we were pretty proactive right from the start and I think that was great because our service is all digital. We do social media content creation, digital advertising, and now with everyone online, this is the way of the future of business. We did not have the foresight to know that fully but we kind of had a gut feeling that the expertise we have could really help people and businesses.
Like a week or two went by and then we got a call about “Some Good News,” which is really exciting. I am a huge office fan and I saw the first episode so we got pulled into the project the day after the first episode went live. And so it was really exciting, we had one phone call and then got an email with the account logins the next day, and it changed our lives. It was really, really exciting and really crazy, and it was great. I do think internally our team worked so hard because the show went on live every Sunday night and it pretty much meant that we all worked around the clock including weekends to make the show the best it could be and using social media. The “Some Good News” was such an honor because we are all passionate about social media and the opportunity to just get all these amazing beautiful stories and put them into this great newscast. So every Sunday night was such a great distraction for us and also just to keep her mind off of the craziness of what was happening in the world.
Morgan: Yes, I can imagine.
Mitzi: Yes, it was a really fun experience to flex some of our skills while also doing something that really helped people in that brought joy to people and I think that was the most rewarding part of it. I think it is definitely a career highlight for me and to see the joy that we brought to people's lives especially during a time that was so hard and to use social media to do that is a home run. We are still involved in the project, we are still managing all the social accounts. So some good news is now a movement and it is not just a show which is really fun and exciting and there is more to come from that. It is been great. I am loving every second and I have to give kudos to John Krasinski for having this great idea that I think so many people have asked themselves like, why is not there a new show dedicated to good news? And he decided that during this COVID time, was the time to do it and the time that people needed it most. It was such a great experience to be a part of and I am honored that we got to play a small role.
Morgan: Yes, it is wonderful. I am curious if it changed how you are planning to approach your own company's social media.
Mitzi: I think it definitely gave us a new lens to look for with during the show, we were fielding thousands of good news stories every day and I think for some of our clients we kind of thought like, is there anything good? And I guess it may be flavored even this conversation like what are the great stories and what did they like heart stories behind your customers and your followers or whoever it is? How are you impacting and making the world better? Because the main message from some good news is that you are the good news in the world. If there is any way we can bring that message into our clients like that is what we are trying to do is highlight the good news stories of people who are making a difference in people's worlds. And if we can if it is a natural fit, awesome. If there is we got a stretch like that is why we are contracted to do that. So I guess maybe it has indirectly impacted like a given us a lens for that which I am really thankful for.
Morgan: Yes, that is awesome. Well, those are the questions I have. I was curious if there is anything else you wanted to add to this?
Mitzi: I guess the last maybe is to not look at social media as a task on your to-do list. It really is an opportunity and the front lines of your business so I think often naturally people in small business owners, especially they get busy running their business and that is an important thing to do but do not neglect the frontlines of your business which can be social media. I think if people are out there who are struggling and not quite sure how to do that, I think to start by asking your customers and then asking who you want to target and then go from there and decide what platforms. And also, I think it matters what platforms do you use if you are not a user maybe that is the first step get on Instagram, and sign up for TikTok. Do one of those platforms the emerging ones and decide for yourself if that is a place that your brand needs to play in or not.
Morgan: It can be so much fun. [laughs]
Mitzi: Totally, yes. If it is not fun, it is not worth it.
Morgan: It is one of the more fun marketing platforms I think.
Mitzi: Definitely, I completely agree.
Morgan: I am going to be linking so link all your information below but I would encourage listeners to give a listen to your podcast because I know you go a little more into depth on some of these topics. So, could you just share quickly company podcast or anything else that you would like to mention?
Mitzi: Definitely. So yes, our podcast is called Wave Social Podcast. You can find it on Spotify or iTunes or wherever you listen. We basically go behind the curtain and ask people who are making an impact online how they do it. So, we interview people on social media or people who can add digital advertising. But basically we want to know how they are making waves online and so we will have a new season dropping soon so look out for that. And yes, our agency is called Arcade, we are @helloarcade on Instagram or at arcadearcade.ca online and we do social media as well. We do social media management strategy, content creation, and digital advertising.
Morgan: Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today, Mitzi.
Mitzi: Yes, thanks for having me. It is always fun to talk about this.
[music]
Morgan: Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of The Small Business Mastermind. I hope you found Mitzi's advice helpful and that it gave you some ideas for either your own businesses social media, social media you run at work, or maybe even your own personal account. Speaking of which if you would like to follow us on Instagram, you can find us by searching for The Small Business Mastermind. I would love to connect with more of you there. It is a fun space to share behind the scenes content as well as key takeaways from each episode and as a reminder if you would like to subscribe to the podcast visit olympiabenefits.com/podcast. That just guarantees that you are notified when new episodes are posted. So, with that, thank you again for tuning in and I will be talking to you again very soon.
[end]
Learn more:
How Small Businesses in Canada Can Effectively Use Social Media
How to Properly Reach Out to Social Media Influencers
How Small Businesses Can Collaborate with Local Social Media Influencers
