148: Socially Connected: Elevating Customer Experiences Through Social Media

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Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp, and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and evergreen sales funnels. In this podcast, we go deep into product and marketing strategies for digital product creators. We cover everything from digital product creation, how to market and sell your digital products, and just as important, how to find your ideal customer. Let's jump right into our show.

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My special guest today is Alaia Nicole. Alaia is a social media strategist and brand manager. She helps brands create digital solutions to leverage social media platforms to connect and grow unique communities. And Aliyah, I am super excited to chat with you today. And we're going to be talking about being socially connected, elevating customer experience through social media. And I know that you have a very unique perspective on this, so I am super excited to chat with you. But before we begin, all the questions that I have for you, can you tell the audience just a little bit more about you and how you help people?

Absolutely. Hi everyone, my name is Leah Nicole and I like to consider myself the social media sidekick. I help businesses build strategy for their social media. So why are you showing up in the digital space and where you should show up? Along with content development, copywriting, and hashtag variations, I help them build a cohesive brand presence on digital platforms and then I don't leave you hanging. I also help manage and schedule your content and do the daily engagement. So once we figure out where your audience is, how you show up, then we will get in front of them as much as we can. Utilizing social media platforms to help you build brand awareness, generate new leads, or any of your goals and objectives for your business. Utilizing the digital space. So I like to say that I'm the social media sidekick. I'm very supportive in my approach. So I ensure that throughout the actual experience with us working together and durations after that, you feel supported in the social media, sometimes implement a little bit of coaching. So if I, you know, suggest that let's jump on and do some reels, I will sit down and teach you how to actually record reels, send them to me and all those things. So I definitely think that it is very, very important to when you're looking for a social media strategist or manager, that they support you in that way. So I like to say that I'm the social media sidekick now.

Alaia, you talk about using social media as, you know, kind of elevating that customer experience. Can you walk us through a little bit more how we can use whether It's Instagram, maybe even Facebook or some of the other social media channels, how we can utilize them as customer service channels.

Absolutely. And this is something that I talk about often, because when we think of social media, we think of brand awareness. It is guaranteed that if you make a count Today, tomorrow or 15 years from now, if you post one piece of content, you'll get in front of a audience. But the skill is to get in front of your audience. And so when you identify where your audience lives, where they're already engaging, you want to go to that platform and produce your content there. And so when people come to social media, they. They typically are trying to figure out what a brand is about, who they are, what is their mission, their vision, what services or products they provide. And so there you get a lot of questions, you get a lot of interest. People want to know more. And so I always stick by the content funnel of 60% of your content should be for brand awareness. So the basic things, the what, why, how, and then you have 30% of that content is nurturing. So that goes into that customer service, that customer experience, where we are not answering the why, what, when you know how, but you're answering specific questions. I always say that if you are looking for content ideas, if you're looking to showcase really good customer service, answer the comments, look at the comments and see people and see what people are saying and communicate with them back and forth. And then that 10% is what I like to say. Closed mouths don't get fed. So that's the direct sales, selling or the direct. Here's the next steps. If you are interested in my product or service. So when you are on the social media platforms, pay attention to how people are engaging. If you see as though people are having the same common answer over and over again, guess what? Take that as a piece of content and turn it into a frequently asked questions carousel or frequently asked questions, you know, static posts or real. If we're using, you know, Instagram, so utilize, you know, the systems that we have and in turn leverage the information that's being produced. And that's one way that you can connect with your audience is listening to them. You know, with brand awareness, we tend to say, how can we get in front of them? But the importance and how to build a relationship through marketing and social media marketing specifically, is building that relationship by actually having those conversations. Acknowledging them is a big one. Acknowledging your audience and what they need and what they want, and then being able to produce that which is in alignment with your brand.

So I like how you broke that out. 30% brand awareness. I mean, excuse me, 60% brand awareness, 30% kind of that nurturing, elevating that customer experience, and then 10% selling because closed mouths don't get fed. What a good quote there. So let's kind of delve into the personalization and elevating that customer experience. How do you suggest that we would do that? What are some strategies for doing that? And, you know, specifically, let's just talk about Instagram, because I know a lot of people listening here. They use Instagram in their business.

Absolutely. And this may not be something that a lot of people talk about that are in marketing, but I see very, very value, very much, much value in it. And it's going through brand strategy first before getting to marketing. I know a lot of us, we get into business, we're selling a product or service, a digital download or digital product of some sort, and we're like, okay, we spent so much time on actually creating this product, and we want to sell it. Right? And that is the goal. That's the ultimate goal. But in identifying who you are as a brand, who you are not as a brand, you know, your values, your systems will allow you to actually show up in the spaces like Instagram, very much so authentically. And that is something that I have seen a shift in, I would say, the last three years. So we've all, you know, been through Covid and the Pandemic. And I can say, you know, people looked at numbers and people looked at, oh, well, this person's popular. So many people are gravitating towards them. And I've realized that actually the smaller businesses or the companies that have maybe a less extensive product suite or service suite, establishing personal brands that allow their audience to connect to that person and then connect to what they offer. So I would say not everyone has to build a personal brand, but bring some type of authenticity or personal sense of, you know, a human and humanizing. We're in the era of AI and everybody's like, I use ChatGPT to write my copy. Which is okay. Which is okay. I'm not saying that, but utilizing your specific approach, your specific perspective. Yes, I'm a social media strategist. Yes, I'm a social media manager. But I tend to have a lot of unpopular opinions when it comes to, you know, social media. So I stick with that. So figure out whatever your unique proposition is for your brand and how that can connect to your audience. And don't be afraid to kind of show up as you Know your authentic self in your brand. I was someone who started a marketing agency and I thought, I just want my brand to speak for itself. I don't want my name, I don't want my face attached. And. And your audience gets detached. And so if you want them to be connected and you want them to invest in your brand, because we want them to ultimately fit into the, like, knowing trust factor. And if you haven't heard of that, the like, no, trust factor is something that we relate to in terminology and marketing, where you want them to kind of go through their process the same way you want them to go through the customer journey, where they're in the awareness phase, and then they go to, you know, the consideration phase, and then they understand that they want to invest. So now that they trust you. But if you don't have content that is necessarily connected or marketing that is trying to foster a connection, then you kind of miss out on building a more personable and custom experience for your audience. And I also like to say, too, and this is something that I always tell my clients, is that marketing is almost like dating. You don't go on a first date and you're ready to marry that person unless you're watching some of these TV shows where it's like, you know, love at first sight or something like that. But for the most part, you typically, you go into it wanting to learn about that person, wanting to figure out what they like, what they don't like. So it's the same way with marketing. So as long as you stay in that and you realize that your audience is your audience, and you create that experience for them, showing them that you are authentic, showing them that you are unique. And you know that by producing, you know, content and marketing that is very inclusive, very specific to them and to your brand speaks volumes. Definitely speaks volumes when you have clarity. So one of the things I would say is brand strategy is very important in order for you to show up in marketing authentically and specifically to your audience. And then once you get to that platform, just always keep in mind that your business, your brand involves you, but it's not necessarily about you. So even in brand development and building a personal brand, it involves you, but it's not necessarily about you. So, so always keep your audience top of mind in their experience.

So really being that face behind the brand is what you're saying there. So let's switch gears just a second and go into how we can improve the customer experience, maybe by social media monitoring and listening. And I know that's Part of your process. Can you go into how you do that and how specifically we can do that? Maybe like on Instagram?

Yes. So how I mentioned briefly before that one of the things is definitely paying attention to the communication that's happening in your and on your platform. So when you are thinking about certain, you know, pieces of content and different things, you want to see how people are actually engaging. And once you see that, you also want to make it. Because sometimes we like to handle certain things and customer experience specific to that person, which is good, but also make it be known. So that's why I mentioned, if you see something in the comments and someone has a common question, make that a piece of content. Also customer experience. I like to send out welcome messages to everyone who actually comes to my platform that I see has a business, not necessarily to sell my product or service, but to welcome them into the experience that they're about to have when they see my content from now on. And so that welcome message just kind of says, hey, Aaliyah. If I'm talking to somebody named Aaliyah or hey, Brittany, my name is Aaliyah Nicole. I'm a social media strategic brand manager. Typically, I'm not the type of person that doesn't look at your account. I look at your account and I'll give you a compliment on what I see that I, that I like. And then I also let them know, if you have any social media marketing questions, please feel free to ask. My DMs are open. That's it. It's not a strict sale type of thing. It's just letting you know. Because I'm a big firm believer in if somebody is scrolling on your your platform for about three to five minutes, they should know what you do automatically. So typically when someone follows, I would say start the customer journey there by welcoming them to your actual account and don't make it so robotic. Like, you know, be creative in that space and so continue the conversation. Also, customer service, or just customer experience is not being afraid to communicate. So someone leaves a long paragraph on your comment section or in your comment section, respond with enough information that answers that question. I see that a lot where someone may say so much in a comment and then the owner of the account is like, well, thank you, I really appreciate that. And so it's like, okay, you kind of shut your audience off from, you know, extending that engagement because you kind of shut them there. So I like to say, continue the conversations when you are in the comment section. Also, Instagram has different features where you can Foster community and customer service channels, group chats, close Friends, if you want to utilize those spaces, customer experience. I just recently started a group chat called Socialite 2.0, which is 2.0 for my email list. I call my email gang the Socialites. So in that I want to start it versus Instagram channel, which is similar. It's like a group chat, but the account manager can only write things in there. So anybody that joins, they can only vote in polls and like messages. But in group chat we can communicate back and forth and that's why I started it. So in there I have an open forum almost every day where people can ask questions if there's something that they didn't like about my page or they want to see. I give them free reign to do that. I also use Close Friends for that. If you are someone who wants to utilize Close Friends on Instagram for a very like a unique, creative way, utilize that for like exclusive content. Utilize that for. If you have a new drop and you want to know before you drop it who would be interested what they like about the product. Do a live like kind of like preview screening of some sort through your stories on Close Friends to allow them to see, okay, I'm doing this digital product which, you know, which aspects do you like of it? Would you purchase this at what price range? And so they can give you that, you know, and so I kind of will people in like, okay, this is exclusive content. You can help me make decisions about my digital products. You can, you know, help me make decisions about certain things that I want to, you know, actually produce for my audience. So creating exclusive spaces, utilizing those features, like as I mentioned, close Friends channels, if you have the subscription feature, subscriptions and then, you know, your DMs really foster with the welcome message or really foster, you know, that content funnel. I was talking about the 60% brand awareness that 30% nurturing and then the 10% sales.

And I love the tips you gave there and some of the examples I didn't even know existed on Instagram. So I'm definitely going to go ahead and definitely check those out today. Aliyah, before we wrap it up here, do you have any last minute tips for the audience?

You know, I do, of course, but I'll keep it, I'll keep it simple. One of the major tips that I will give, and this is something that I see very, very often, is when you are developing a social media strategy, the first thing is figuring out where your audience is and what's the best platform that is in alignment with your brand. And what I mean by that is there. Think of your brand. This is a. Oh, I'm just telling you all of my little sayings. Think of your brain as a classic, right? A classic travels through time but remains the same. A classic is not a fad or a trend, right? So don't treat your, your brand or your business like a trend. Treat it like a classic. So in the era of TikTok, I am someone who, I will do TikTok accounts for my clients and I will scroll on TikTok at 10 o' clock at night to just look at content. But I know for me, TikTok is not my platform, Instagram is my platform. So identify long term what platforms are really, really good and in alignment with your brand. Tip number two, know that every platform is different. I see this all the time. So I want to warn you guys now, content works that works on TikTok may work on Instagram, but do not directly pull your TikToks and put them on Instagram. Because Instagram now detects the logo. Now detects. Even if you. Because some of us have gotten smart where we found apps to remove the logo. But the thing is, is that content already has some type of tracking on it and some type of data on the back end that lets Instagram know that this is not original content. So even if you get a TikTok video, switch it over to Instagram and you feel as though it is doing really well, it's getting, you know, 10,000 views, think about the potential it would have had if it came directly from Instagram. So knowing that all the platforms are different, TikTok is not Instagram, LinkedIn is not YouTube. TikTok is not YouTube. So identify maybe one or two platforms that work best for you in alignment with your brand and master those and maybe go on to another. But identify that the cultures are different, the algorithm is different. So if you want to repurpose content, repurpose the same concept and not the same content. And I'll leave you off with this last tip. Marketing is very, very much so directed or directly connected to psychology. And I talked about this a little bit briefly in a boot camp that I recently did. Marketing is really about understanding people beyond the demographics. So marketing is great in understanding who you serve, their age range, their race, where they live, how much money they're making, what is their occupation, but also leaning to those psychographics, what makes them purchase, what makes them invest, what makes them want to even incorporate what you have to offer into their lifestyle. Like that's the biggest thing. What and why do I need your product or service in my life? And so you as a business owner and if you're working with a marketer or you're a marketer yourself, identifying, okay, how do I fit? Because for me, I can say on a surface level, my clients don't have the time to post. Right? That's easy. But then I have to dig a little bit deeper. Why not? Okay, they're focusing in on their business. Okay, what different things do they have to focus on their business that ranks higher than social media? And then what intent do they have for social media? Tell my clients all the time. And I'll tell you guys as well that social media is at the very top of the phone. Social media is under the umbrella of marketing, it's not under the umbrella of sales. So there's no guarantee that you will get conversion right from social media. It's possible, but it's at the top of the funnel. So knowing that marketing is really, really connected psychology, try to understand people and try to understand your audience beyond that surface level of I know their pain points. Okay, but why do they have these pain points? What comes priority over and where does your product or service fit into that solution? So those are my three. I will give you those three.

Well, you gave us so much there and I agree with you. Social media is at the top of the funnel, more so in the brand awareness and not where you're making the sales, which generally will be at the bottom in the decision making process where you're going to do that via email. Aliyah, we're going to wrap it up here very quickly, but first, can you let folks know where they can find you? And I believe you have a gift for them also.

Absolutely, yes. So I am basically the same name across all boards. So you can find me on Instagram at. I'm Alia Nicole. That's one A. I know a lot of people say, oh, you have two days. So I have one a. And then on LinkedIn you can find me at Alianicole. And then on Facebook you can find me at Alia Nicole. And then my website, of course, alianicole.com and yes, I do have a free gift. I am a very much so content girly. Right. I love creating content and I like to streamline the content creation process. So I did create a template that will allow you to plan out three months of content. So that could be quarter two since we're heading into July very, very soon. Or if you want to and you're hearing this podcast a little bit later. You can always change the different months. So in that content planner I give you a space where you can identify your objectives and your goals for the quarter or for the month. Separate content calendars for each month. So you have three templates for that. If you are someone that likes to batch create content, which means that you create content for a period of time in one sitting, I have a calendar for that and so you have access to all of that in a template that you can download and you can change all of that. So I kind of have a setup where it has Instagram, Facebook, Instagram or Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, but you can change the categories, all of that. So you have free reign to make it as customized as possible. But it definitely helps with streamlining content and making sure that you complete the task to create the content and then it actually goes out and is scheduled. So yeah, you will have the link to that. But I'm excited for you and please let me know if you download it what you think about it because I will always love for improvements moving forward.

And we will make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so people can find you. And thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of your wonderful social media knowledge with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. If you found value in this episode, I'd love a quick review on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. If you don't know what to say in the review, just say Destiny. I loved your episode on whatever topic you're listening to. This will help us get our content out to more people just like you. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.