In this solo talk, Ed Weeks Jr., founder of HV Social Media, dissects the widespread failures of small‑to‑mid‑size businesses in social media marketing. He argues that many owners excel at their core services but are woefully inept at promoting them, often delegating to younger staff or untrained personnel who assume “digital” equals “young”. Using a real‑world example—a dental practice’s Facebook ad for a $3,700 retainer offer—he illustrates how vague messaging, poor creative, and inconsistent posting render the spend ineffective and reinforce the myth that social media doesn’t work. Weeks then offers concrete, low‑cost remedies: study Facebook Blueprint to understand what good looks like, and when hiring an agency or staff member, audit their own social profiles as a litmus test. He stresses that 95 % of self‑proclaimed marketers lack the skill to tell a compelling brand story, and that businesses must either take ownership of their digital presence or invest in qualified professionals to avoid wasting ad dollars.
Chapters
Hey, good morning everyone. Ed Weeks Jr. here, the founder of HV Social Media. I am going to take some time today and really dissect what I see on a regular basis when it comes to social media marketing. Number one thing that I often see is that business owners who are really good at something they are professional in are really bad at marketing their business. Or business owners rely on younger staff, office manager, sales rep, whoever it may be within their organization, and they just think because they're younger they can do social media, digital media, because it's a younger thing. 2 of the biggest mistakes I see consistently in local, regional, national All those levels. It's just people are trying to be good at something they're really bad at. So I'm going to give you an example from my local market today. So as I switch screens here, you can see this is an ad that I saw this morning and I had to take a picture of it. So it's for this dental arts studio in Wappingers that has, you know, all of 2 likes, and they have a picture of a lot of smiles. $3,700 with retainers expires At the end of April. Some restrictions apply. Call us. So I'll just take a little ha there and say, let's go back to that. I don't even know what this ad is trying to get across to me. What is $3,700? If I'm going through the feed really fast, does all this smiles across this busy pictures make me stop? I was going really slow through it, so it did make me stop. Just what made me stop was this $3,700. I have no idea what this ad is trying to get someone to do. Doesn't— you know, they're trying to get somebody to call their office. I understand that. So I took the time here to come to their website or their Facebook page. I'm sorry, in the Facebook page, what do I find right off the get? Okay, happy birthday, doctor. Hopefully this message finds you so you can start doing social media a little bit better. I find this Right? Here's the doctors' selfies. I can assume, which I will, from that picture that these guys are trying to do their social media themselves. At best, they have somebody in their office who's trying to do their social media. Why? Here's a post, Halloween, standard. When you look at these, these are standard things that happen. People have no idea what to post, so they post Halloween. Awesome. Then they don't post again until November 15th. Then February 12th, they're posting to letting the people know they're closing. No one is one like. Then we come in and it's a deuces sign, which I'm a big fan of. Everybody knows me. I love the deuces. But what is this trying to establish? Okay, here's the two doctors. They're dropping peace signs. They have pretty much a clutter. I, I'm just confused by what they're trying to market. So rather than continue to focus on what they're doing, I'm just going to say this is what happens. They're putting money behind this ad that is really, really missing the mark on every level that you can imagine, and they're going to spend $50, $100 in a month, which is nothing. And they're gonna think social media marketing doesn't work. And there is no bigger fallacy. Your marketing and so many others like you, your marketing doesn't work. Your marketing didn't work on a traditional level and it's certainly not gonna work in a digital level. So the reality is this, This is what I consistently see. You're putting marketing things out there that don't work. So here's my advice to you. If you're not in a spot to hire a professional outside agency, look to facebook.com/blueprint. Take the time to learn what great looks like, and then Try to do some of your own marketing, because what you're doing at the moment and what the majority of people are doing at the moment simply doesn't work. Now, here's some other advice. If you're looking to a staff member, if you're looking to even an outside agency, simply request a few things. Their— no, one thing: request their profile information. Look at what they do on their own business Facebook account, on their business Instagram account, on their personal Instagram account. Look at what they're doing on platforms and say, yes, that's what good looks like. I will promise you, from most so-called marketers today, their own marketing sucks, that's a red flag for you to move on. And if it's a staff member and they're— they have no relevancy in a social media or digital media realm, why would they have any ability to make your company look good? That's what it's all about. It's about getting a great story out there, making companies look good. And I am telling you, 95% of the people that are out here trying to do this have no serious ability to do it. So just take those little bits of advice. Make sure you're getting the most bang for your buck. This is the time to be owning your social media, owning your digital media. If you're not and you're playing, you're literally wasting your time. So hope it helps. Thank you. Hope, uh, whatever the name, Boppinger Falls Dental Arts sees this and understands why they need to seriously up their game. Peace.
