Communicating well on social media and other marketing channels with Corrie Oberdin

[00:00:00] Corrie: When people come to us and they’re like, we’ve got something starting in four weeks, what do we do? I went to a wedding in October. We got an invitation in August and we got a save the date card in May. That is a great example of communicating, right?

[00:00:16] Like that’s six month communication span. Had she just posted on her Instagram the day before she got married, yo, I’m getting married and I want you all come.

[00:00:29] Or sent an evite on Friday saying, please come to my wedding on Saturday.

[00:00:34] Nobody would’ve showed up. A lot of times I see organizations, businesses, soloists, who are launching something, be it a digital product or a service launch it in a way where they almost treat it like the, the latter example, like the evite example, right?

[00:00:52] Like they send something out, they post on social, maybe they send an email, and then nobody shows up and they get really butt hurt, and sad. They, they’re like, well, that failed, right? I’m done. So instead, I like to think like treating your product launches as and your social or your email or your website, just like you would the care and feeding of planning a wedding or a big party that you’re having with all like a family reunion, right?

[00:01:23] Rene: Hey everyone. Welcome to Your First Digital Product, a show that helps maxed out service providers create their first digital product so they can gain an additional income stream, grow their impact without increasing one on one work, and experience more time freedom. On the show, I talk to business owners who have launched digital products and dig deep into how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. I’m your host Rene Morozowich. Let’s go!

[00:01:51] Hey everybody. Today I’m here with Corrie Oberdin and Corrie works with small teams, teams of one and soloists to help make sense of their social media marketing and [00:02:00] email options. She has been working in digital marketing since 2000 and specializing in social media and digital customer communications since 2006.

[00:02:09] Hey Corrie, how are you?

[00:02:11] Corrie: Hi. Yay.

[00:02:13] Rene: Yay. I’m excited. Yeah, So do you wanna tell us a little bit about you? Like that was a lovely sounding bio that I read, but if you wanna say some things in your own words.

[00:02:22] Corrie: So, yeah, so it’s true. I have been in digital marketing since 2000. Um, I got my start in New York City of all places doing, um, music marketing with a company called Electric Artists.

[00:02:35] And, um, they did what we then called online street teams, which were basically taking old school music street teams that record labels used to use and translating them online. And I have been doing some form of helping companies communicate with their communities ever since. Um, going into, so, so my early career was focused a lot on like website, like literally people who own Geocity

[00:03:05] Corrie: websites

[00:03:06] Rene: Yes.

[00:03:06] Corrie: And groups, news groups.

[00:03:10] Going from that to blogs and I did a lot of early influencer marketing, um, with bloggers like mom bloggers and things like that. And then in about 2005, 2006, the company I was then with started really getting into how can we use social media. So social was a natural fit for me, and I’ve kind of been here ever since.

[00:03:35] With like lovely little tangents into everything from customer communications training and like online sentiment looking at and email and, and all sorts of other stuff that as long as it kind of helps people communicate with their communities about what they’re doing.

[00:03:55] So that’s really it. And I feel like a dinosaur in the industry because I [00:04:00] have been around since 2000. I also had my 31st anniversary with internet

[00:04:07] Rene: Oh,

[00:04:08] Corrie: 2022. So I got on the internet back in CompuServe days if, knows what that is.

[00:04:16] Rene: Yeah. I went to college and we had a VAX system, like it was all like text-based. And you were checking your email and like a like it was, yeah, totally different time. So I bet that it’s really valuable to have seen the things that have changed and seen the things that have stayed the same,

[00:04:33] Corrie: Yes,

[00:04:34] Rene: probably stayed the same in that like we still need to communicate with potential customers and community.

[00:04:39] Corrie: yes,

[00:04:40] Rene: Hey People do that. Yeah.

[00:04:42] Corrie: Yeah.

[00:04:43] Rene: Cool. Okay, so today we’re going to talk a little bit about, so this is a different episode. I probably should have said that up front. Uh, this is a different episode. Normally I talk to people about their products and their first product and all that stuff. And today we’re going to talk about how to use social media and other things to promote your product.

[00:05:01] So it could be launch marketing, and I, I talk also about ongoing marketing,

[00:05:08] little bit different strategy. So we can talk about both or either whatever you’d like to talk about. So people are on social media sometimes, right? Mostly some people are in all the places. Some people are in some of the places.

[00:05:21] Some people are like, I don’t do social media, but like how, like I think a lot of us who are using it are confused. Like, we just don’t know. We don’t know what to do with it. We’re like, do I post about my product every day? What if I post about it once every six months? Like, will that work? You know? So people do stuff like that.

[00:05:38] So just kind of lead us in here to this discussion about like, what do we even do with social media and our products? Just kick us off.

[00:05:49] Corrie: Sure. So, um, that question is literally, um, than a bread box. Like, I don’t know anybody watches Dr. Who, but like, a small question, but it’s bigger on the inside. It’s like the [00:06:00] Tardis. Um, so how should we use social media to promote products? I, I would say, first of all, uh, to your, your friends who you mentioned who aren’t on social at all, I’m gonna say something extremely

[00:06:15] antithetical for someone who actually works in social. Um, maybe you should not be on social promoting your products if you aren’t already actively using social.

[00:06:25] Rene: Okay. Mm-Hmm.

[00:06:26] Corrie: Um, you either need to think of social as a long-term strategy you need to maybe not use it at all.

[00:06:33] Um, a lot of times, and I’m gonna give you an example from, I, I work with, uh, a lot of nonprofits or I have in the past, and one of the things that always struck me is I would get contacted about events that were happening and an organization would be like, Hey, we need to retain you to do some social media work for us.

[00:06:55] We are having an event on April 15th, and I’d look at my calendar and it would be like March 7th, and I would look at their social and they have like nothing on about the event have nothing on about anything. And that is a flawed line thinking. Like you need to be using social regularly. If you’re gonna be using social to promote your products.

[00:07:19] First of all, to my friends who are not using social, maybe look at it as a long-term strategy and start using it. But don’t expect to like hop on and like make a big splash with a launch if you not it or don’t use it. Um, for my friends who are using social, and you’re just confused, right?

[00:07:40] You’re like, what do do?

[00:07:41] Rene: Yeah. What do I post? When do I post it?

[00:07:44] Corrie: but how, so my first pieces of advice are, um, number one, start with what you know, right? So there’s a tendency when we are launching something, particularly for soloists and small businesses [00:08:00] to be like, I am doing this new thing. I need to be everywhere. Um, I need to be on TikTok and Instagram and, and Twitter and Threads and Facebook and have to do it all.

[00:08:12] Um, and that is a recipe for burnout, and a recipe for not doing anything well, right? If you are a soloist or a small business, um, and I qualify small businesses, not necessarily in revenue, but in personnel, so if you’ve got a one person marketing team and they are, and you are launching something, don’t make that person open five new social accounts to promote your right?

[00:08:43] Start with where you are and start with what you know. So that’s number one. So just like you can plan your, the products you wanna wa launch strategically, you can plan the channels you wanna be on and you don’t just have to jump into them all at once.

[00:08:59] So that’s number one. Number two is, um, planning actually, like that’s the secondary piece. So a lot of times similar to the nonprofit scenario, I did actually, I’ve got a great example for you. Um, and it’s a real world non-marketing example, but I’m gonna just use it in the hopes that people will understand the idea of planning from a marketing perspective and how a lot of marketers brains work.

[00:09:31] When people come to us and they’re like, we’ve got something starting in four weeks, what do we do? Um, I went to a wedding in October and um, it was the wedding of a very close friend. Um, we got an invitation in August and we got a save the date card in May. That is a great example of communicating, right?

[00:09:53] Like that’s six month communication span. And, um, she even had like [00:10:00] separate cards for like different things, right? So there was like an after rehearsal dinner, we got an invite to that. Had she just posted on her Instagram the day before she got married, yo, I’m getting married and I want you all come.

[00:10:15] Or sent an evite on Friday saying, please come to my wedding on Saturday.

[00:10:20] Nobody would’ve showed up. A lot of times I see organizations, businesses, soloists, who are launching something, be it a digital product or a service launch it in a way where they almost treat it like the, the latter example, like the evite example, right?

[00:10:38] Like they send something out, they post on social, maybe they send an email, and then nobody shows up and they get really butt hurt, and sad. They, they’re like, well, that failed, right? I’m done. So instead, I like to think like treating your product launches as and your social or your email or your website, just like you would the care and feeding of planning a wedding or a big party that you’re having with all like a family reunion, right?

[00:11:10] So you want to start thinking about what your marketing is gonna look like as you are doing your, your, your product, right as you are creating your product. Um, I realize some products have really small lead times. So in that case, like you might wanna give yourself extra time between creation and launch to plan your marketing.

[00:11:35] Um, but my general rule of thumb is you need when you’re launching something, uh, depending on what it is. So note, this is a rule of thumb, it’s not full guideline. Um, I like to see people start talking about the launch six weeks in advance. That’s my rule of thumb. Some people, if it’s big ticket item, right?

[00:11:59] Like I [00:12:00] have a friend who has a coaching program, it’s a physical fitness coaching program, it’s a pretty hefty outlay. It’s a 750 outlay for like high level handholding. Um, she starts talking about that three months in advance. Like people got a budget, right? Like not just gonna like fork over $700 because they saw a post on Instagram two weeks before.

[00:12:27] Rene: Yeah. Good point. Yeah.

[00:12:29] Corrie: So, so that’s kind of number one. Like my rule of thumb is six weeks for a lot of things, but I like to see it differs based on the monetary outlay, what it is, and also the time outlay That’s number two. So right? Um, but then also, you know, you wanna plan your messages before launch.

[00:12:51] And then number three is making sure everything matches. So there’s this term in the marketing industry called integrated communications, and some people love it and some people hate it. Um, because it means we all have to work together. When you’re in a big company and you’ve got, uh, PR and corp comms and brands and you know, branding

[00:13:16] Corrie: and

[00:13:17] Corrie: social and email and all these different parts work together, it means there’s big teams coming together to make a campaign happening either through an agency or internally.

[00:13:27] When you are a small business and a soloist, means you are literally all those things in one doing the thing. So what that often means, and the advice I give people, is making sure they don’t write anything in a vacuum. So, for example, I would. Create your content, right? And add maybe if it’s a short content or a short digital product, you can create your content first.

[00:13:56] But you could also work on your marketing as you are [00:14:00] creating, like you’re doing a bigger course,

[00:14:01] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:14:02] Corrie: Um, create your landing page. Once you’ve created your landing page, create your email sequence or your, you know, your lead magnet or whatever you are doing, and then create your social messages off that.

[00:14:17] Making sure that you are not going over here with your social, like your social messages are promising one thing, landing page is promising another, you don’t even have email. So, so that’s piece. The second piece from planning perspective is saying, all right, I’m gonna post on social leading up to my launch, social, you once a week for five weeks, I’m gonna mention.

[00:14:47] The launch and what it is and I’m talk about it and the problem I’m solving. And then for a week I’m gonna, maybe I’ll do a live, maybe I’ll do something special. Maybe I’ll offer a disc. You know, whatever it is that you are doing. Um, you have kind of a little intense period and the intense period matches for your email list and your social as well.

[00:15:07] Rene: Okay.

[00:15:08] Corrie: Um, and then finally, and I know we kind of like backed

[00:15:12] Rene: No,

[00:15:12] Corrie: this,

[00:15:13] Corrie: then after you launch, the other thing I see people do is depending on how the launch goes, especially a lot of times there’s a lot of emotion tied

[00:15:23] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:15:24] Corrie: When you are a soloist or small business owner, there is so much emotion. ’cause you are not just saying, here is my product, please buy it.

[00:15:32] You are actually saying, here is a piece of me, validate the work that I have just done.

[00:15:37] Rene: And please Love me,

[00:15:38] Corrie: love me, love me,

[00:15:39] Corrie: love

[00:15:40] Rene: think it’s awesome. Yeah.

[00:15:41] Corrie: Yeah. So the last thing is sometimes when things don’t go well. I see people having a tendency to hide and be like that product. I don’t, I don’t know

[00:15:51] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:15:52] Corrie: I no idea who she’s, um, is.

[00:15:55] Remembering that your au you never know when your audience is gonna [00:16:00] meet. So they might meet you two weeks after you have launched your product you don’t talk about it, they will have absolutely zero idea that exists. There is no entry point. the final piece is looking at your marketing calendar, and this is where I mentioned you should have even the barest bones of a marketing calendar or a pattern and saying, you know, once a month or twice a month, I’m gonna post about this product.

[00:16:30] Um, either stories, you know, whatever. And once a month or whenever my email comes out, I’m going to mention this product. Um, or I might have it in my email signature, or I might have it, uh, every couple months. I’ll put it at the front of my website. Like, there are different things you can do, but just making sure that your launch isn’t the last time you are talking about it.

[00:16:58] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:16:59] Corrie: And the last kind of piece on that I will say is that a lot of times we assume that people remember everything we said,

[00:17:09] Rene: Right.

[00:17:09] Corrie: But I’m gonna ask you if you remember what you had for lunch two days ago.

[00:17:14] Rene: Right.

[00:17:15] Corrie: Do you remember? it was really good.

[00:17:17] Rene: No. Yeah. No. Mm-Hmm. For sure not. Mm-Hmm.

[00:17:20] Corrie: Remember what I posted days ago on social media?

[00:17:24] You do not. It probably something, um, whiny or annoying, but you don’t, right? Like, so we think that people are paying a lot more attention to us than we they are. So you have to remind.

[00:17:38] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:17:39] Corrie: The best lesson I actually ever got doing this, um, back in 2013 to 2017, I worked at a local utility company do their social, the coolest thing I learned was that they were legally obligated by law in the state that I live in, [00:18:00] to share consumer safety messages in their mailers.

[00:18:06] Like the utility bills you get, like if you’ve gotten a utility bill and it says smell gas call, boop, they are not doing that out of the goodness of their heart. They are that because the government has said you have to let people know. But when we did those messages on social, because we kept a similar pattern.

[00:18:27] They were the best performing messages because people were like, I had no idea.

[00:18:32] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:18:33] Corrie: And we were like, we are posting this literally twice a month. How do you not know this already? It’s because people do not pay attention to you as much as you think they are, and your audience is always meeting you at a different time in a different place.

[00:18:47] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:18:48] Corrie: That was a very long answer.

[00:18:50] Rene: Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s okay. Yeah, it’s good. I have questions though. Or, or maybe comments or observations. So you mentioned the wedding invitation and the save the date and things like that. So, and then also the, the, uh, utility bill.

[00:19:06] So it’s kind of just like good things to keep in mind that like, for example, when you get a utility bill, you’re probably not reading it all in depth.

[00:19:15] Corrie: Great.

[00:19:15] Rene: And then when you get something like save the date because you’re sending it via postal mail, it’s really like it’s in, people will get it. They’re not going to not get it. So like, thinking about the your social messages and your emails. Not everybody opens your email. Not everybody’s gonna read the whole thing. Not everybody’s gonna see that social post. Not because they didn’t want, they weren’t online that day, or the algorithm, you know, whatever.

[00:19:42] Corrie: Yes,

[00:19:43] Rene: So I think that like, you know, those are great analogies, but also keeping in mind like how they apply to this situation. People are not going to comb through your 8,000 word sales page.

[00:19:54] Corrie: Yes.

[00:19:55] Rene: You know, just like that kind of stuff. So, yeah.

[00:19:57] Corrie: Yeah. So that, so that also [00:20:00] lends me to say, this is why you should diversify what you do and not rely just on social, or not rely just on email or not rely just on search, right?

[00:20:14] They frequently talk about how businesses must be on Instagram, fine.

[00:20:21] But what they don’t mention is that they also have a banging email list, an incredible podcast, and a really extensive website.

[00:20:29] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:20:29] Corrie: Even while they are talking about you need to be on Instagram a lot, they have this whole diversified chain of marketing that people can meet them at or find them at or pay attention to.

[00:20:42] So that’s kind of number one. Number two is, this is one of the reasons why, I think social kind of has done a, had a little bit of a disservice, and this has been since 2005. Like we say, it’s easy because it’s the only form of marketing that everybody knows how to do.

[00:21:03] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:21:03] Corrie: Um, you might not know how to do an HTML email.

[00:21:08] Because that can be a little hard, like a designed nice email. Right?

[00:21:12] Rene: Not just like a graphic with all the words on top. yeah, Like a real one. Yeah.

[00:21:16] Corrie: Yeah, yeah. Like a real, like the mix. You might find that a mystery and be like, that’s really cool. I don’t know how to, they do that. You might not know how to do a design a print ad or do a commercial, but everybody in their mom knows how to post on Facebook for better or worse.

[00:21:32] So, um, a lot of times we think social is easy, social is fast. Social is my solution because I already know do it. But we ignore kind of all of the other chains command, um, for my clients who s uh, also engage with people in real life. I make sure that they don’t discount [00:22:00] mailing.

[00:22:01] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:22:02] Corrie: Yeah. print or radio. I mean like, like Pandora. Like I have a client who uses Pandora a ton, not, I don’t know if it’s Pandora. I think maybe now it’s, they’ve switched over to Spotify, but in 2017, 2018, they were using Pandora all the time. Um, so that’s a thing where like, it’s not just, and they are a small client.

[00:22:22] They are not big, and their spend is not huge, but they used. So it’s kind of one of those things of where else are your audience. The other piece is you, for people who are virtual, almost always virtual, right? They don’t see people in person.

[00:22:39] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:22:40] Corrie: Never discount letting your, I call it like a matrix of influence, right?

[00:22:47] But it’s people in your network that you talk a lot, right? Letting them know personally. You are launching something. So I’m gonna give you an example. I have a friend who is, um, teaching a course next year and it’s live, so it’s not like a digital product, it’s actually virtual so you can attend it, right?

[00:23:14] Um, she has taken an Instagram break and um, which is cool, I wish I could take an Instagram break, but, it’s

[00:23:23] Rene: You can’t.

[00:23:24] Corrie: She sent personal email to like 50 people in her network who have supported her career at some point in time or used her services said, I mean, it was a cut and paste email, but it was personalized to me. It wasn’t through like a mailing system and, you know, MailChimp or Constant Contact or anything. And it said, I would really appreciate it if you could let your network know about this. And there is power in that too. So one thing I like to tell people, if you are launching something. You have a small band of friends [00:24:00] or colleagues or clients or partners do not discount personally letting those people know.

[00:24:09] Like don’t discount that. Um, I have a client who has launched something recently and one of the most amazing things that she has done is she has created care packages for her most invested people and she has sent them to them with information about her product.

[00:24:34] Rene: Hmm. Nice.

[00:24:35] Corrie: And I got one and I remember being like, delighted like the first thing I did was share about it on social. So a lot of times we look automation and look at social and we look at digital and we think that’s. Print or, or offline networking or like offline advertising isn’t for me because I’m this, but like just personally emailing someone and letting they them know you’ve done something can go really, really far as well.

[00:25:10] Um, know a lot of people, you know, some people have huge audiences and they may be like, who needs to do that? Like, who has time for that? But for smaller businesses and smaller people, it can go really, really far. Um, and so that’s kind of why, where I always feel weird because I’m the social media email person, I’m also always asking the question of like, what are you doing offline?

[00:25:34] Like, you doing the real world? How are you connecting with your existing clients or your client base or people that you’ve worked with in past? Like that’s something that you have to, um, of continually mine as well.

[00:25:48] Rene: Right. Right. Yeah, I’ve seen that before. And I had an episode with Maggie and she mentioned that too. She calls them the wolf pack, her wolf pack, and she will send an email to them and let them know. And, [00:26:00] but also like, make sure to say that like, Hey, when you have something, I’ll be happy to share it with my network.

[00:26:06] And I. I have also been on the receiving end of one of those too. I have a client who I’ve gotten an email from her like, Hey, I have a thing, you, and you can tell. It’s like a very specific, like, because we are friends, clients, you know, like it’s a different situation. So, yeah, and I think it does go a long way, and especially when someone asks you, Hey, would you share this if you think it’s appropriate for your audience?

[00:26:29] Or if you think your audience would find value in that? I’m gonna be like, no friend, I won’t do that. Like, of course you’re gonna do it like, like you wanna do it. And there, when people are asking you for help, you’re like, you’re happy to help. Like it’s, know, and then I think that is, you’re leveraging then so many other audiences.

[00:26:46] Like your audience can be whatever size it is, but like more audiences are good exposure for your product. So.

[00:26:54] Corrie: Yeah.

[00:26:55] Rene: for

[00:26:55] Corrie: I really went, you know, like, use the wedding analogy, Like, to go back to that, the paper invitation is the personal ask you make of your network, right? That it’s not even the ask, it’s that I’m doing this thing and I just wanted you to know. Right? Um, that can be that, but it’s also talking about it and letting people know what you’re doing on an ongoing basis.

[00:27:21] The other piece of that consistency. So, um, I know you mentioned, I think right at the top you were like, how often should I post? Um, I actually just wrote a newsletter about this

[00:27:37] Rene: Yay.

[00:27:37] Corrie: I have a newsletter called Sustainable Social and the topic last month was on how often should I post? And, um, there is no right answer. Um, I will, I I actually just saw on a friend retweeted as a joke. Somebody had been like, you should post on threads 10 times

[00:27:57] Rene: I saw that.

[00:27:58] Corrie: Yeah, yeah. [00:28:00] Like Facebook once a week, Instagram twice a day, like stories five times a day. And like,

[00:28:06] Rene: Oh my God.

[00:28:07] Corrie: That is bananas, right? That’s number one. Um, but like number two is there is no formula. Like there is no formula. And anybody who tells you there is a formula that they can tell you without knowing anything about your business or your circumstances, full of CRAP. Um, they, because every business is different, even within a niche. My rule of thumb is I look at four things. I’ll just, do you mind? I

[00:28:42] Corrie: really like numbers.

[00:28:43] Rene: Do the things. Yeah, all the things. Count ’em all up.

[00:28:45] Corrie: This. I like numbers.

[00:28:46] Corrie: And if

[00:28:46] Corrie: you Instagram ever, I do like this a lot. Yeah. Um, I look at what your audience

[00:28:56] Corrie: What

[00:28:56] Corrie: their capacity is. If you are like, I am going to have a huge, like six weeks up to launch, I’m gonna post every week and then my launch week, I’m gonna post like every day. And I’m gonna do like three lot, whatever. I’m just, I’m making all this up. Don’t write any of this down for, if you, uh, if your audience is on the channel at night while they’re in bed scrolling Instagram to like, look at cat memes, your big launch week is not gonna have a lot of traction.

[00:29:32] Right. If you are like, you’re like, I’m gonna have a big thing on, you know, I’m gonna do a big LinkedIn, whatever, and your audience is, I don’t know,

[00:29:42] Rene: On vacation. It’s a holiday or something. Yeah.

[00:29:45] Corrie: Like, so that’s kind of what is your audience’s threshold for posting? You can find that out by talking to the people who work with already.

[00:29:55] So that’s number one. Um, number two, you can [00:30:00] also pay attention to your metrics, but that’s like a totally different conversation that we’re not gonna have

[00:30:05] Rene: Yeah.

[00:30:06] Corrie: That needs like a, I need like a whiteboard

[00:30:08] Rene: Right?

[00:30:08] Corrie: Like, I, I look, I kind of a little nuts. number two is, um, the channel. So I said both LinkedIn and Instagram, like LinkedIn’s threshold for posting, like I posted something a week ago I don’t need to post again because people are still reacting to

[00:30:28] Corrie: it.

[00:30:28] People

[00:30:29] Corrie: still reacting to a post I made ago. The LinkedIn’s threshold is a little bit lower for like daily posts or even weekly posts than say Instagram is. And then Instagram stories are different Instagram So like, what is that? Kind of look at your audience the channel and you kind put together to see what, what comes

[00:30:52] Corrie: up.

[00:30:53] Corrie: The third thing is your capacity creating content

[00:30:58] Rene: Yeah.

[00:30:58] Corrie: because, um, you know, I, I talk to a lot of organizations, big organizations that are like, we wanna post twice a day on this channel. And I’m like, cool, cool, cool, cool. Um, we’re gonna create some content. Uh, we plan the content and then when it comes get, this is, this is fool me once, fool me twice.

[00:31:22] So this doesn’t happen very often anymore. But, uh, we’ll plan, we’d plan the content they would be so busy they couldn’t get me the stuff I needed to make the content. And that’s an example of a big organization, but sometimes even small businesses, you’re like, I am gonna, I’m gonna have this many photos, I’m gonna have this many captions, I’m gonna have this many things.

[00:31:47] If you are a service provider. You’re doing a prod product for, to like get out of that service provider churn and your client has an emergency, suddenly [00:32:00] your posting schedule is totally off because to post daily, but now you don’t have time to create the content. really looking honestly, at your capacity, like, and when I work with clients, um, I, I will literally do the mom thing because I have two kids, right?

[00:32:16] So I’ll make like the mom face, you’ve been on the receiving end I’ll be like, but really.

[00:32:23] Rene: That’s what you’re deciding. Yeah.

[00:32:25] Corrie: Really do that. Okay, actually, let’s think about like, can you really, so that’s kind of really asking yourself, but really, do to X, Y, and right? So that’s kind of number one. That’s not even number one. That’s number your organizational capacity, whether you are a soloist or small business or in an organization, like what is that capacity?

[00:32:47] Um, and then number four, do you have on a capacity note, do you have the capacity to engage with the people engage with content?

[00:33:00] Corrie: Because

[00:33:01] Corrie: It’s not just about posting your stuff, social media is social. So you have to be prepared. If you are going to talk people, you have to be prepared for them to talk back. And so if you are looking at how often should I post, but you don’t have time to engage with comments or questions, need to post less so you can make time engage with those comments or questions.

[00:33:33] Um, the other piece of that puzzle, and I’m, I know that this isn’t like a hundred percent the point, but I will mention social ads. So if you are spending money on Facebook or Instagram boosting your posts, et cetera, um, one of the things I always ask clients when they’re thinking about budget for that is, what is your organizational, what is your capacity for, um, answering questions?[00:34:00]

[00:34:00] Now, You might not get a lot of questions. Um, but I, I’ll give you an example. I had a client, um, this was pre pandemic who wanted to run a series of Facebook ads and their budget was very big, like in the five figures for a local organization. And their call to action was to contact them. And I was like, do you really have people to answer that many people?

[00:34:33] And the answer was, oh, no, we don’t. So let’s reconfigure this between. so you really do need, whether you are just posting on social or you are spending money to boost your posts, um, you need to make sure, especially if you’re a soloist, that you can handle. I always like to tell people, can you handle accidentally going viral?

[00:34:53] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:34:54] Corrie: And when I say viral, I, there’s couple different types of viral, like there’s like getting on CNN on.

[00:35:00] Rene: Yeah.

[00:35:00] Corrie: Viral. Nobody wants that. Um, but then there’s like getting like 250,000 views,

[00:35:08] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:35:08] Corrie: And like 500 comments like that is burnout situation.

[00:35:13] Corrie: right there.

[00:35:14] Corrie: So making sure that you have the capacity to deal with of the stuff where you can shove stuff aside to manage

[00:35:23] Corrie: some

[00:35:23] Corrie: that can be really important too.

[00:35:25] Corrie: So,

[00:35:25] Rene: Yeah.

[00:35:26] I wanted to say about the content, like you had mentioned earlier on, about creating the marketing content like at the same time as you were creating like the product content. And so I think it’s important to keep that in mind that it’s not just all fresh brand new content.

[00:35:42] However, however, I have embarked.

[00:35:45] I’m in the middle of a, a social media campaign about, I did 22 days of digital products and I’m on day 12, and woo, is it a lot of work.

[00:35:54] Corrie: It’s a lot of work.

[00:35:55] Rene: Posting every day and like reconfiguring for platforms and creating [00:36:00] images for specific platforms. And I feel like in the future I would be able to reuse. Like if I did it for the next two seasons, I can reuse it.

[00:36:08] But like now just writing it. Ha. Because on Twitter it only can be this many characters, but on Threads it can be more, but on Threads, this doesn’t look good, but this looks good. Like, so it’s something to consider that yes, you should start with the content you’ve already created, however, earmark time to manipulate it to the platform that you need.

[00:36:31] Corrie: Yes. So I actually think of that more as administrivia

[00:36:35] Rene: Okay.

[00:36:35] Corrie: Content than creating the content.

[00:36:38] The hitch that I see a lot of people having is actually the sitting down. Like, and I, I think a lot of times when I talk to people about creating content, they envision like sitting down with a blank piece

[00:36:51] Corrie: of paper.

[00:36:51] Rene: mm-Hmm.

[00:36:52] Corrie: Or like a blank word document and like writing going into Canva or, or Adobe with a blank graphic. And like starting, like that is the point I see people get hitched up on sometimes, which is why I say create the content as you go, which is like maybe as you’re creating something like earmark, oh, I can talk about this, or I can talk about this, or I can talk about this.

[00:37:15] Like, these can be talking points ’cause I’m solving a problem with this product. But to your point, that is also a part of content creation. I see. Um, and I call it iterations. So creating content specific for each platform is actually iterating content.

[00:37:34] Corrie: And when

[00:37:35] Corrie: I actually do, I, you pretty much described it, but when I create content for people, we start with what I call a base message.

[00:37:42] And so that’s kind of what I, you know, this

[00:37:44] Corrie: because we’ve

[00:37:45] Corrie: talked about it, but like I’ll start with a base message. Then I have an iteration process where I will do it through. Um, this is also why if you are a one [00:38:00] shop or a solo business owner, um, it is important not to be like, I am gonna post five times a day on every single platform I’m on, and I’m on eight platforms.

[00:38:11] Like I’m Sky and I’m Mastodon, I’m on Threads, I’m Twitter. Like, that’s a lot of work.

[00:38:16] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:38:18] Corrie: Um, so that’s another piece of the puzzle as well. Yeah.

[00:38:23] Rene: Yeah, and keeping it small. I think the message of this show, and I would say that maybe, maybe return listeners, hopefully, I’ve either convinced them already or I’m hopefully on the way that like, you gotta scale this stuff way down. Like, don’t create that huge course. Don’t pretend you’re gonna post on, on every platform five times a day.

[00:38:40] Like you, you know, you’re not going to do that. It’s not sustainable either. Just like, just like, lower the bar, lower, lower, lower.

[00:38:48] What can you do consistently? And I think if you show up consistently, like you feel a lot better and it’s manageable over time because yeah, that client work comes up, the emergencies come up like, and you can’t just be like, oh, well no more social media posting because I have three client emergencies.

[00:39:03] Like,

[00:39:05] Corrie: Yes. to that note, I will tell you that the advice that I give, like the start small, right? Because you’re doing God’s work by doing this by the way, like that is literally what people need to hear. Because a lot of times I think in the industry we are held, particularly in social media, we’re given these brands as exemplifies, right?

[00:39:30] Who I don’t think people understand. It’s not just a social media manager working at Wendy’s. It is a team of people, like a ton people. I have worked on some big social clients. There were like 20 people involved.

[00:39:47] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:39:47] Corrie: That’s a lot of people. Even some of my mid-sized social clients, I had seven people involved.

[00:39:56] Now, when we say to someone who is a one person [00:40:00] shop, you need to, or like a marketing team of one a small business, need to be held to the same standards as Verizon. That’s wild, right? So think about what resources do other people have. And a lot of times, even with small influencers who launch courses products, there is a difference between influencer who might, you might look at someone and say, oh, this person is in my space.

[00:40:34] They are, they are creating all this incredible bespoke content for their channels. I am repeating the same graphic on, on three chan or you know, or the same

[00:40:46] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:40:47] Corrie: but they’re doing something new every day. Like, how is that happening? I am here to tell you, they have virtual assistants. They have a marketing team.

[00:40:57] They might have a Corrie, right? might have a Corrie and like a another person. They, there are whole teams of people that I think we as, a lot of times solo business owners feel like we have to emulate people. But in reality, we are only seeing the one person. are not seeing the team behind, which is actually, um, will give a shout out.

[00:41:22] My friend Naomi Hattaway does an amazing podcast and she’s got as well, you know, you know Naomi? I know, I know Naomi. Uh, she did just launch a book and she has done an excellent job of sharing the team behind her. And I wish more people would do that because it is so easy to say like, why can’t I do X?

[00:41:45] And I have a lot of conversations with people who are like, why can’t we do X?

[00:41:48] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:41:49] Corrie: And I wanna be like, look at what you’re working with.

[00:41:51] Corrie: Right?

[00:41:52] Corrie: You’re working with, um, like half, you know, especially I have a lot of people who do, um, like maybe part-time stuff. [00:42:00] I’m like, look at what you’re working with. You have a full-time job and you’re doing and you’re launching a thing.

[00:42:04] And it’s literally just you like,

[00:42:09] Rene: Yeah. Especially I, I think when the, when the brand, we don’t realize it’s a brand, but it’s, it’s one person’s name.

[00:42:16] Corrie: Yes,

[00:42:16] Rene: think, like it’s one person’s name. I have one name, I am a person, so therefore my branding and graphics and social media presence and likes and followers should be on par with that one person.

[00:42:32] Like, and that’s not,

[00:42:34] Yeah.

[00:42:35] Corrie: Yeah.

[00:42:36] Rene: That’s not, it’s not the same.

[00:42:37] Corrie: It’s not the same. It’s not the same. It’s not the same. And, and it can be really easy to get caught up in that as well. So, um, and I don’t know why we went off on that tangent, but that was a tangent. And I have said myself, I said, what? I said,

[00:42:51] Rene: Yeah. No, it’s good.

[00:42:52] Corrie: The gist is do not compare your outputs and inputs to other people’s outputs

[00:42:59] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:43:00] Corrie: You can’t see what they’re using.

[00:43:02] I remember, I will say one thing I worked with, uh, a, uh, in my, in my field of hobby, I, I got to work with, um, someone and, um, as a teach, as a teacher, not as client. And I was amazed to learn. And I don’t know why, because like I do this for a living, but I was amazed to learn. She had like a team of like five people.

[00:43:29] Working with her. Working and I dunno why it never occurred to me because like, I do this stuff, but like, I was like, oh, like you are not doing this like bespoke in your little house,

[00:43:38] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:43:39] Corrie: right? Like, you’ve got a whole

[00:43:40] Rene: you.

[00:43:41] Corrie: put this together. Um, so that is, that is a, like even I, even marketers or even people who have done this for really, like, we can still kind of fall for

[00:43:53] Corrie: the

[00:43:55] Corrie: so and so does it this way.

[00:43:56] Why can I not like, yeah.

[00:43:58] Rene: Yes. Yeah. exactly. Yeah.[00:44:00]

[00:44:00] So I guess maybe kind of on that vein, like what other things maybe are we falling for? Or what other things are that, are people trying to do that you’re like, whoa, like you’re, I, you have one, um, gif that’s like, no, what are some things that maybe that, I know you’ve covered quite a few.

[00:44:17] Like what are some things that you’re like, okay, don’t, don’t do this thing. Like, if you’re going to, you know, use social media, whatever, like, don’t do this. Like, what mistakes are people making out there?

[00:44:27] Corrie: Mistakes people making. So I don’t necessarily wanna call them mistakes I think most of the time they’re made in good

[00:44:33] Corrie: faith. Right?

[00:44:34] Corrie: Especially if you are not, if, if you, uh, uh, wait, I’m gonna, I’m gonna contradict myself. If the person is a marketer, they have probably a reason for doing them.

[00:44:46] There lot of marketers out there. I’m just gonna say that right Um, but think my biggest pet peeve slash whatever is taking from multi-level marketing tactics.

[00:44:59] So

[00:44:59] Rene: Oh yeah.

[00:45:00] Corrie: So like the DM me

[00:45:00] Rene: Yeah.

[00:45:01] Corrie: for more info um, is a multi-level marketing tactic. They do it so they don’t have to say the company name in their posts.

[00:45:09] Um, so if I, when I see non MLMers do it, I’m like, Ooh, you’re in danger, girl. You’re in danger. Like, don’t do it.

[00:45:18] Rene: They probably don’t even know that they’re doing it. They probably just see other people doing it.

[00:45:22] Corrie: Um, the other, but, but some things are. And it all comes back to basics, actually not paying attention to their metrics, like not paying attention to their numbers over time, but then, and also paying too much attention to individual metrics.

[00:45:46] So, um, around this time you’ll probably see there’s been quite a few, um, posts on threads that I’ve seen that are like, just so everybody knows, there’s this one creator, I’m forgetting his name and I apologize. [00:46:00] Random man who does a great job on Threads. Um, but he said something like, I am telling all of my clients and all of my friends, it’s not you, it’s everyone.

[00:46:12] Numbers are down during this time of year.

[00:46:15] Rene: Okay.

[00:46:16] Corrie: And I can tell you because I have been in the industry tracking stuff, different things, but all kind of involving engagement. Since 2001, that literally hurts me to say like 2001 . I have been tracking numbers and historically pre-cell phones, internet traffic crashed Thanksgiving

[00:46:41] Rene: Hmm.

[00:46:41] Corrie: and the day after Thanksgiving everybody was home

[00:46:44] Rene: We were out at Black Friday. We were in line

[00:46:47] Corrie: we weren’t on our phones.

[00:46:48] Corrie: We were a little because we weren’t our phones. Uh, for a while that changed once we all got iPhones in our pocket or computers in our pocket. Right. But we still see habitually a decrease in attention from like the week before Thanksgiving to like I, I see with my clients, like the week after New Year’s.

[00:47:15] Rene: Okay.

[00:47:15] Corrie: Um, and, and sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down depending on what we’re sharing, but usually I expect fewer returns. And there’s few reasons for it, but the big one is everybody’s attention is extremely fractured,

[00:47:32] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:47:33] Corrie: Think about all of the news articles or all the podcasts or all of the Instagram posts you have saved, and you’re like, I’m gonna look at this during the holiday break don’t have anything else to look at.

[00:47:44] Like, so, so people’s attention is fractured and everyone is communicating more than they usually communicate. They’re communicating a higher frequency. So there is more stuff and more things vying for attention.

[00:47:59] Rene: [00:48:00] Mm-Hmm.

[00:48:00] Corrie: So that’s something that I can pretty confidently say every year this is gonna happen to my clients. Also I, I work with a lot of people very long term and I encourage people to track their metrics long term.

[00:48:13] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:48:15] Corrie: You’ll find your ebbs and flows. You might be like, my metrics are perfect at this time of year. Cool, good for you. You friend. Um, but uh, if you track your own personal business metrics year over year, you will find your ebbs and flows.

[00:48:32] So of that when something dips or something goes off or is awry or something’s really, really good,

[00:48:39] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:48:40] Corrie: You can say to yourself, ah, this is within my pattern. I do not necessarily need to tell myself a story about this,

[00:48:49] Rene: Oh, the telling yourself a story. Yep.

[00:48:51] Corrie: Telling yourself about what metrics mean, or this is new and different. I might explore what this means and oh, if I have a really amazing week, does it mean I repeat the same type of post next week?

[00:49:05] No, it means I look and see what happens the next week

[00:49:09] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:49:09] Corrie: to see what I might learn from that. Right? it’s of. I want, I want people to pay attention to their metrics, but I don’t want them to be married to their metrics in a way that each week or day they are inferring a different marketing direction or communications direction based on the numbers said from day before.

[00:49:33] Rene: Mm. Yeah.

[00:49:34] Corrie: not the star. You’re not the stock market.

[00:49:37] Rene: Yes. I don’t even know how to check. The only metrics I like understand is like when I go to like LinkedIn or on Twitter, um, really those are the only ones I know and it just tells you like impressions.

[00:49:48] That’s it. That’s all I know. A couple people, like some things maybe a comment, but like, I dunno what to do with it. I dunno how to write it down.

[00:49:54] Corrie: So back in the day, and by the day, I mean like 2009 [00:50:00] to 2013, views were big and likes were big.

[00:50:06] And for some brands still have to be like, no, no, no, we Slapping hands saying we don’t care about views and likes, like they’re nice, but they are ultimately vanity metrics.

[00:50:21] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:50:22] Corrie: The things that matter. And I please note when I say this, I look at it over time. I do not, look post by post ’cause I’m a nosy, uh, person and this is what I do, but like a really amount, I, I track it over time.

[00:50:39] Um, engagement outside of likes. So shares, um, comments,

[00:50:46] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:50:47] Corrie: link clicks. What people are doing once they get to the place that I sent them. So are they signing up? Are they leaving? Do they care? Right. Um, that, that kind of thing. And, and also like, is the goal happening? Whatever your is, maybe to get people to sign for your newsletter, maybe it’s to get people to buy something.

[00:51:14] Um, ultimately all the likes in the world and all the views in the world might not make people do

[00:51:25] Corrie: what you want them to do once they’ve gotten to the place that you have sent them

[00:51:29] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:51:31] Corrie: So I usually will also start backwards. So when I do social ads, for example. . Um, I had a client who was, I do this thing called how do I, which is like for soloists, who were like, I wanna learn how to do Facebook ads and I don’t wanna figure it out myself.

[00:51:47] So I helped figure it out and her ad was great. It was getting conversions, but nobody was signing up.

[00:51:55] Rene: Okay.

[00:51:55] Corrie: We finally looked at page. Should I have done this in advance? Yes, I should [00:52:00] have, that’s fine. in my defense, I broke my ankle and wasn’t thinking clearly. Um, but when, when we looked at the page, 90% of her visitors were on mobile and signup button on the standard sized iPhone, which was a large chunk of her visitors, was below the fold.

[00:52:25] Rene: Oh, okay.

[00:52:25] Corrie: So people were jumping to the, they were jumping to the link and they were like, I’m not gonna scroll through this. Then they were leaving. So once we flipped it so that you sign up and then scroll down to learn more, and we even said that changed everything.

[00:52:41] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:52:42] Corrie: So always start like if you’re like my social PERS posts aren’t converting, it actually might be your website.

[00:52:51] It actually might be how it looks on mobile. It actually could be the language that you’re using. like maybe you’re asking too much of like if they’re on mobile, maybe don’t ask them their first name, their last name, their birthday,

[00:53:05] Rene: their address, their social security number.

[00:53:08] Corrie: Right. Just get an email from them and move on. Like you can of that stuff later.

[00:53:13] So that’s kind of the, the piece

[00:53:15] Corrie: that like, you wanna look kind of deep in the bowels before you make any major, because what we always wanna do is we always wanna make tweaks on the surface.

[00:53:23] So people I, I see. So I guess when you say, what’s a mistake when you see someone constantly testing new messaging all the time

[00:53:33] Corrie: either, or new offers all the time on social or email, or even on their websites, you know, like, that’s usually like, my question would always be, what, what’s the very last step? And then change

[00:53:48] Rene: Mm-Hmm. Okay.

[00:53:49] Corrie: changing at It’s of like. Decorating a Christmas tree, right? Uh, you don’t put the star on top until everything. I mean, I don’t put

[00:53:58] Rene: Yeah.

[00:53:58] Corrie: on top. Everything else [00:54:00] is done. Um, but you really would not put the lights on last,

[00:54:03] Corrie: like, that’s the last

[00:54:04] Corrie: you would do. So like, think of the backend, is the lights, on with the backend

[00:54:10] Corrie: before you get up

[00:54:12] Rene: Yeah. And the experience for sure. Like, test it out like, oh, so people don’t look at their websites. Yeah. That’s a whole, that’s a whole thing.

[00:54:19] Corrie: And then also giving it time. Mm-Hmm. That’s the last, I think that’s the last mistake, is veering wildly from to tactic or thing to thing.

[00:54:31] Not giving stuff time. I have a, a client that I worked with this year, and I got to see their metrics on their, their style. I didn’t work on this product, but I got to see their metrics on their different products.

[00:54:46] And the most amazing thing to me is that they had one product that was their starter product,

[00:54:52] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:54:52] Corrie: um, which I got, which was also, I loved it. It was great. Um, but, uh, that is like their best selling product, which, you know, it’s a lower price point. All that stuff makes sense, right. But thing they do, that was such a reminder for me as to why they, why it kept selling.

[00:55:17] Was not that, it was the lowest price point thing, right? Because there were a couple things. They had added some things and there were lower price points there. It was that they made point of continuing to talk about it, why people might need it for, I think they started, I, I wanna, wanna say they started it, it’s about five years old, so like 2017 maybe.

[00:55:44] Um, and people are still buying it, it’s still relevant. It’s not a time sensitive thing.

[00:55:52] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[00:55:53] Corrie: Um, but they ev like couple times a month in social, [00:56:00] they’ll post about it. They’ll post about it in like stories. They’ll post about it on Twitter. And then the coolest part is also like in all of their email, like their email onboarding, their email, like their newsletters, they will have it as like one of the ways to work with ’em or one of the things that you can do.

[00:56:23] And it just really hit me how consistency and not assuming that everybody already knows about insert thing here, like your, your easiest thing, right? Or your smallest thing or starter thing. Um, that translate into consistent, um, like action, right? So this company it. They now don’t have to think about like it’s embedded in their email Like it’s embedded in their social calendar. It’s just kind of like now it’s almost like a check the box. They don’t do anything fancy. There’s not, they’re not, they’re not holding half off sales for it. No. They just mention it and so every new person who comes in still has a way to get introduced to it.

[00:57:19] Rene: Mm-Hmm. Yeah. I think that’s really important that not everybody knows you. And if you say something on Tuesday for the people who meet you on Wednesday, then they’re not going to know about it because you can’t just be like, oh, well I said it on Tuesday. I think we feel like, and we are like, we feel like we’re repeating ourselves, but not everybody hears and sees every single thing that we say all the time. So it is good because people need to hear it multiple times. So if we say it 10 times and you just don’t even hear it five of those times, or don’t even see it, then you still have five times that the message gets in before you’re like, oh, you know what? Like, that makes sense. I do wanna sign up for that email list, or I do want to, you know, whatever action it is, go to that event or whatever.

[00:57:57] Corrie: It’s a similar thing in branding. I used to do a lot of [00:58:00] work with, um, a branding design agency that pretty much their bread and butter was rebrands. It was either logos and branding brand identity for new companies, it was rebranding a new identity for existing companies.

[00:58:16] Rene: Okay.

[00:58:17] Corrie: And a lot of times they would have companies come to them and be like, we need a full rebrand, a full, we want new colors, we want a new we want a new website. We want all of the things. the first question they would always ask was, was the last time you rebrand? And nine times out of 10 it would be under five years.

[00:58:40] And some, you know, additional probing questions would happen. But what we would often find is they were tired of the brand. Internally. Ugh, I hate these

[00:58:55] Rene: Yes.

[00:58:55] Corrie: I’m so tired. Like, ugh, we need to do letterhead. Like, ugh. What they would tell ’em, and this was a great lesson for me as a marketer, because I took that into my work on social them, was when you are getting tired of your thing or your brand is right when your customers are probably getting used to it and

[00:59:14] Rene: Hmm.

[00:59:15] Corrie: it familiar.

[00:59:16] Rene: Nice.

[00:59:16] Corrie: And right when you are getting tired of your messaging or like talking about, the thing is probably when your audience is realizing that you have the thing and it’s, it can be hard. Like you’re like, well, I don’t wanna,

[00:59:30] Rene: Right. You’re like, it’s so ugly now. Yeah.

[00:59:33] Corrie: Don’t wanna keep telling people about like, like water and gas sale. Like, bored.

[00:59:38] To quote Marge Simpson repetition is our job. Repeating yourself is your job. That is maybe number one as a business owner, if you are gonna get people take action on the things that you want them to take

[00:59:54] Rene: Right, right. So this might segue right into your advice, like, ’cause this sounds like a piece of [01:00:00] advice and maybe some of the things you’ve already said. So like, what are some top tips like for people like they’re launching a product, maybe like repetition and maybe what’s the other top things people be doing?

[01:00:13] Corrie: Consistency. Repetition. If you are a soloist or you are the face of your organization. So it, like, you are a, a per, and your name is your name, right? Like, get over your self. Get out of your way. I come by this honestly, and I’m saying this, like, the call is coming from inside the house.

[01:00:38] I will tell you right now, get over yourself. Because a lot of people are like, I don’t wanna not my stuff or talk about my stuff on social media because I’m embarrassed.

[01:00:48] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[01:00:49] Corrie: It’s like, how are people gonna buy from you if they don’t know what the hell you do?

[01:00:53] Rene: Yeah.

[01:00:53] Corrie: Right?

[01:00:54] Rene: True.

[01:00:54] Corrie: So get out of your own way. That’s maybe my biggest piece of advice.

[01:00:59] Um, my, my, I would say the planning. So consistency, but also planning. I love a good spreadsheet. That is my way. Um, I know you are a fan of patterning, right? Like so, and, and, and creating a pattern that works for you, that can be another way to plan. Um, you know, even a good old fashioned paper calendar.

[01:01:24] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[01:01:25] Corrie: Write it down, say it’s gonna happen, put it in your workflow, and then at the very least it’ll happen. And then also, I would say the last thing is you don’t have to be perfect in your social or your marketing.

[01:01:46] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[01:01:47] Corrie: What that means is we spend a lot, I spend a lot of time with organizations. Uh, the best clients don’t do this, but I, I’ve had my clients where they’re like, should we really use the word the there [01:02:00] or I’m worried that our logo isn’t bit enough. Like, you don’t have be that, especially if you’re a soloist or a small team.

[01:02:11] You don’t have to be that precious and perfect, you can be just a little bit mess maybe, like, maybe you don’t say it right the first time you get a second chance. Um, a lot of times I see business owners get hung up on using the perfect language over social to describe their product. And it’s like, just say what it does.

[01:02:31] Like are not looking for poetry. You’re not Shakespeare.

[01:02:35] Rene: Mm-Hmm. Be clear. Be clear.

[01:02:37] Corrie: Yeah, be clear concise, but also if you go on just a little bit, it’s okay. You’re gonna have a second chance, right? You’re gonna have a second and a third guess what? You’re gonna have to keep doing it forever until you decide to sunset your product.

[01:02:52] Rene: Right, right.

[01:02:53] Corrie: See my friends who have the six to 7-year-old product that is still selling, guess what? You’re gonna have to keep talking about it seven years later if it’s not time sensitive. Um, so that’s kind of the, the, the final piece. Oh, and I guess the other thing I’d say is like. Don’t, don’t pay attention. Pay attention to what other people do.

[01:03:16] Right? Be aware. Be aware of what’s going on in the world. But don’t let what other people are doing in their marketing affect your marketing.

[01:03:30] Rene: Mm-Hmm.

[01:03:31] Corrie: Or affect how you feel about your marketing. ’cause your business is your business and their business is their business. And what they’re doing in their business is not because of how, like they’re not doing it to make you feel a

[01:03:47] Rene: Right. Exactly.

[01:03:48] Corrie: you shouldn’t feel that way. I get a lot of people being like, everything I’m doing is wrong. And it’s like, dude, it’s not even about you.

[01:03:57] Like they’re in, you know, London, [01:04:00] like get a grip. Like you are talking to people in Chicago like, or however it goes. Right. Or like, this is marketing to millennials and my friend, you are marketing to 60-year-old women.

[01:04:10] Like it’s different thing. So, um, I, I think a lot of business owners in marketing pay a lot of attention to what everybody else is doing when they should be paying attention to what’s happening in their, their business.

[01:04:27] Rene: Yeah. Eyes on the road.

[01:04:29] Corrie: Eyes on the road.

[01:04:30] Rene: Your road, not their road.

[01:04:32] Corrie: Yeah. Your road. Like, don’t look car crash. You can look at car because they’re, they’re internet car crashes are fun to watch.

[01:04:40] But like, you also don’t need to look at, I call it shiny object syndrome.

[01:04:46] Rene: Yeah.

[01:04:47] Corrie: it’s just gonna make you doubt your choices. So

[01:04:51] Rene: Yeah.

[01:04:52] And it’s a distraction. Like it’s a distraction from like you have work to do. Like we just told you that you need to service your clients and market your product and do it these ways. You don’t have time for extra stuff.

[01:05:01] You don’t have look at that. Yeah.

[01:05:03] Corrie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Mm-Hmm? Mm-Hmm.

[01:05:05] Rene: I it. I love it. Okay, so tell us where people can find you online.

[01:05:11] Corrie: Where people can find me. Okay. So my website is www.corrieo.net, and I spell Corrie C-O-R-R-I-E. I am on Corrie Oberdin on all the socials, and by all the socials, I mean Threads, LinkedIn and Instagram. Um, I am only on Facebook, uh, when I’m paid to be on Facebook by other people because none of my clients are on Facebook.

[01:05:39] I have a newsletter called Sustainable Social, which is available on my website. It’s literally a popup. ’cause that’s what I want people to do, even though I hate popups.

[01:05:47] It’s a tiny one. It comes up and then it goes away.

[01:05:51] Rene: They work. That’s why people use them.

[01:05:53] Corrie: Yeah. Um, so Sustainable Social is on my corrieo.net website. And then, um, it is for [01:06:00] small teams, teams of marketing teams of one and soloists who are either tasked with or use social media in their marketing, um, to remind us all that we are not Verizon or the Barbie movie, right?

[01:06:13] Like can’t do the same things that organizations with large teams do. And that’s okay. We can make it work for us. Um, and then I have a newsletter called Chaos Freelancer that is the freelancing and solo business ownering, which is a word that I just came up with, um, newsletter that I needed when I started working for myself, um, back in 2009.

[01:06:36] Um, everything I’ve talked about, um, today from the comparing myself to big companies, to comparing myself to other solo owners, uh, to thinking I should hold myself to a standard. That I really shouldn’t be. Um, that all of that stuff that I talk about is because I have been through it and done it in the last 15 years.

[01:06:58] That is called chaosfreelancer.com. You can sign up there, there are some fun things coming in the next year on that. Um, so that is me and I to be a little saucy and a little spicy. So if you don’t like the occasional accidental F-bomb, particularly in Chaos Freelancer, it might not be for you.

[01:07:22] Rene: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on today and sharing all of your experience.

[01:07:26] Hey, thanks for listening. I’d love to continue the conversation in your inbox. Email SUBSCRIBE to hey at yfdp.show or sign up in the show notes to get bi monthly emails about how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. Can’t wait to see you there.