Social Media Is Not One Size Fits All

Is the key to leveraging your personal brand on social media and to really getting the visibility that you need to grow whatever enterprise or cause that you see fit. Sheryl Plouffe here, host of Cashing on Camera. My guest today is Nikki Clark, who is the host of her own show, The Nikki Clark Show, which is an award-winning show. She's a singer-songwriter, she's a mom to 3 adult children, she's an ordained minister. It's amazing. Your strat— your resume is something, Nicky. And you're also launching your next book this fall. So, Nicky, great to have you on today as we discuss social media and not taking this one-size-fits-all approach. What has been your journey with social media over the years?

Well, first of all, I just want to thank you so much, Sheryl, for the invitation. I am honored to be here on the show. It's a wonderful platform. But yes, my journey into social media was something of an evolution. I started off as a college professor in the Faculty of Early Childhood Education, and I did that happily for 10 years as a single mom with 3 children. And I had a couple of other, you know, part-time jobs. I used to joke and say, you know, I have one job per child. To kind of make all the ends meet as a single mom. But I thank God that we got through those days. But through, I would say, the last year in the 10-year of teaching at Sheridan College, I just got this really strong inclination. I call it a divine whisper. And it was getting louder and louder, Cheryl, to do what I really wanted to do. I'll backtrack a little bit. I studied film and communications at McGill University in Montreal, and my heart was yearning for this thing to be on TV, to have a talk show, and to follow in the footsteps of this great woman I hope to meet one day, Oprah Winfrey. But that didn't happen at the time. I got into teaching and raising 3 young children. The desire came back, uh, the year before I decided to take that leap of faith and start an online talk show. And so 2008, 2009, I officially left the college to, to take this, this huge, like I said, leap of faith and to start the show. And I wanted to do something where I could invite people from all walks of life to come on the show and to share their heart stories and to help people understand that whatever experience they're having, that they're not in isolation, that there are people out there who have been there, done that, and are so courageous to share their story.

And I think we both probably have this desire to want to pay it forward, and we have a lot in common. We both have shows, we both taught college, we both have kids. And so, I think that we often, whether we're starting a business or a cause, we have some type of internal knowing or yearning for something more. I think a lot of people can relate to that desire. It's not an easy path necessarily, but it's a worthwhile path. And so, now I know you are a community activist and you do a lot of work in the community. How do you use social media to further that cause?

Right, so as I developed the, the show, um, without really all the tools, uh, doing it, and, and I started livestream, uh, before livestream became a thing, uh, and, and my hope is to go to TV. And now that, you know, I have the show on TV, it's so funny that, you know, 360, I'm back on livestream and, and understanding that the beauty of livestream just just as what you're doing, Cheryl. But I, I had to understand what it was, uh, what the elements were, um, and what I needed to do to boost my business online. You know, I had, I had an audience that was, you know, interested in the show, and it, and it started to grow. I started to get some, uh, viewers from Asia, uh, Australia, and I realized, you know, there, there were no boundaries. To the live streaming element. You know, people could tune in whenever they had the time and they had the interest. So, okay, I have an interested group of people. How do I keep them engaged? So I had to learn ways organically to keep people kind of fed with the, you know, the nourishment of the soul of the show. So this is where I had to do some research and to find out what were the elements to keeping people engaged. And I went kind of back to school, so to speak. I went online and I found some mentors who were really prominent in their field. And I said, okay, this is what I'm going to use as a model to engage people. So what I've done is I've kind of put to practice what I've learned and I also teach others. Social media is not one size fits all, and people are probably, you know, wondering what does that mean. Well, it's not that you, you can't use the same content in, in different platforms, it's just that it's not maybe going to be effective using all the platforms with the same content. And what I do is I provide kind of a, a little breakdown, a synopsis of the popular platforms so that people can understand the audience that follows these platforms and how to use them wisely.

Yeah, and it's interesting because I think in a world where we're inundated with social media as an entrepreneur, or if you're a coach, a consultant who's watching this right now, you have to make a really concerted decision or concerted effort and a decision about which of those platforms to focus on. Because if you focus on all of them, it probably isn't going to get you the results that you're after. So Nikki, in the interest of time, I know there's so many platforms. But let's focus on maybe like 2 or 3 social platforms that we can really identify as being a unique type of person who engages on those platforms. One of the ones that I think is really intriguing is TikTok. You know, TikTok, this short-form type of content. They're making a lot of changes. You know, we've got creators are being paid now on TikTok to make content. We've got people blowing up. You know, what are your thoughts about TikTok and the type of people who engage on that platform and watch those videos?

Yeah, it's, it's TikTok has really come a long way. I mean, initially it started out in the mid-2000s as a way to kind of get people engaged through lip-syncing, right? You know, find the favorite song and then some neat background and effects, and then you can sing along to it. But it's actually evolved into a really neat marketing tool. So entrepreneurs are using it, public leaders are using it, politicians, religious leaders, it doesn't matter. As long as you have something catchy to say and you can frame it within less than a minute with graphics, you can use the video to send out your message live, or you can tape it and then you can repurpose it on different streams. So It's actually become a really unique way of being cost-effective in your marketing and getting the attention that you want. And just like you said, there are people who have blown up and become millionaires almost overnight with some of the really funny parodies, really unique scripts, or maybe some fun dance moves that have incorporated their family or people in the community. And it's a really fun like I said, cost-effective way of getting your marketing across to reach your intended audience. So not quite as serious as some other platforms, but it's light and warm-hearted to reach the people you want to that way.

Yeah, I agree. I have— I feel like one of my responsibilities as a video strategist is to try a lot of— like to try all of the platforms where there's video so that I at least have a working knowledge about them. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm focused on TikTok. I have created content there. I don't have a ton of followers, but it hasn't also been a focus of mine, but enough for me to kind of get in and have a basic understanding of what's happening. So, um, and then on the other hand, you've got some— a behemoth like YouTube, which I'm a big fan of. And, you know, I grew a lot in 2020. I think 1.5 million video views in 2020 alone just from doing a video once per week. So I'm sure we could have a, a discussion about YouTube and how to best utilize that platform today?

Yeah, absolutely. Same here, Cheryl. YouTube, it was how I grew the community. You know, the Nicki Clark Network happened through the, the reaches of YouTube, and it's, it's a wonderful opportunity to set and establish yourself as an expert in whatever area of topic or or whatever area of interest you have become like a YouTube sensation. And it really sets you apart from other people by using this wisely. Because people ask me, how do I use YouTube to— and what kind of subjects can I use to get people to draw to my channel? How can I get their attention? Well, the great thing is that you can go to YouTube, click in a keyword in the search, and then it will pop up a whole bunch of ideas. For example, if I wanted to find out a way to make my own hand sanitizer, I would go to YouTube and I would click on hand sanitizer and it would show me all the people who have actually logged in on hand sanitizer and shows like a community of hand sanitizer and different ways to do it. So this is how you can formulate, just a tip for you on how you can find things that people are looking for and, and do your own little research and create a YouTube video based on the interest out there in the, in the community. So that is—

I'm just showing it on the screen right now because I— can you see that on the screen, Nikki? I just put in hand sanitizer.

Hand sanitizer.

Look at this, 550,000 searches per month. Per month.

Hand sanitizer. So you'll know that that is a very popular item. It's not going away time soon. So keep doing those videos, you know, keep, you know, your 2, 3-minute, 5-minute videos. You know, I, I like short and sweet brevity because people have, you know, uh, ADD when it comes to media because people are being bombarded, uh, every single minute with some new information. So keep it short and sweet and catchy, um, keep the eye candy there, like make it very, um, you know, attractive to look at and to sound. So, you know, work on your lighting, work on the type of your lower thirds, the graphics you use, maybe the background music. So keep it as interesting as possible, just like Cheryl. And I see my name and how you put that together.

That's a lower third.

That's a lower third.

You and I know that terminology and lingo, but the others— so a lower third is graphics that in this case they're animated and they come in, they slide in, they can do different things. They appear in the lower third of the, of the frame. Absolutely. And so, and so the, um, with Facebook, Nikki, what's your approach to growing and really getting that attention going on Facebook? Any tips you want to share?

Sure. Facebook has been, you know, ideal and kind of the hybrid approach of, of connecting with people. It's, it's formal and informal, depends depending on how you want to use it. I have my my private page, I have where I connect with my friends and close, you know, my family members, and then some new people in my network. So we, you know, interact that way. And then there are also some customized pages that I have for my businesses. So I have one for my show, and then I have one for my music. So the great thing about Facebook is that it can help you if, you know, you don't have all that background in putting together templates. There are customizable templates there for you, so all you need to do is to plug in the data, and there you have a very professional-looking page to attract people to your website. So that's what you want, is you want a conversion to, you know, having people go to your profile so that it can turn over into a website. And then the ideal thing is the conversion into a sale or into, you know, what kind of interaction you want to have with the potential client. I love that. I love Facebook for that.

Yeah, yeah, you know, it's, it's funny because there have been so many changes with Facebook in the last many years. And, you know, Facebook Groups I think is still an awesome platform. You know, organic reach on Facebook Pages has decreased significantly since algorithm changes. So people are finding it a bit of a struggle. They, you know, they've built up, let's say, an audience of a couple of thousand people on a page, but only a small percentage of them see those organic posts. However, having said that, I think it's still a platform where your audience may well be. So if your audience is there, have a presence on the platform.

100%. Yeah, absolutely. And keep it authentic. Use stories. You know, it's amazing, Cheryl. Maybe you've experienced this. I find more people go to my stories than they actually like whatever post I have. So I know they're looking because I can, I can see. The great thing about stories is that you can see who looked and you can see, you know, the interaction. They maybe they'll give you a like or a haha or a love, a little note, but you'll see, you know, that people are watching. So I do more posting to my stories now than to my actual feed.

Yeah, I've done that for a long time and I'm big on Instagram stories. I love that. In fact, I did a few story posts before this interview just talking about how I'm setting things up before the interview. I like to use it for behind-the-scenes type of action. So even though that's going to expire within 24 hours of this broadcast, but nonetheless, it's fun.

People want to see the effect that it'll make anyway.

Yeah, they want to see like what's, you know, what's going on. And so I think those are all great tips. Nikki, we have a little segment that we do on the show called Stop Marketing Like It's 1999.. And the concept of it is I'm a big Prince fan, as you can see all the purple around me here. And what I'd love to know from you is—

oh my gosh, something else in common!

Are you really? I'm purple fam all the way. Like, I am. Yeah, so we'll have to take that offline because we could go into a Prince direction. Um, so stop marketing like it's 1999. What is a tip a tool, a tactic, a technique that you have used to effectively market yourself, or your business, or your causes in a modern marketing way? Like in a marketing strategy really that's working for today's world.

Keep it real. You know, keep it 100%. People like to see just you being yourself. You know, you don't always have to come with the hair and the makeup looking you know, just precise for, you know, a fashion magazine. They want to see the sweat sometimes. They want to see the hair a little bit unruly. And, you know, with my hair, that happens quite frequently. So, you know, love me or not, I have curly hair. There you go, Cheryl.

This is the best I can do today is a little claw clip at the back. I agree.

I agree. So there you have it. But, you know, that's really— people want to be endeared to just who you are. They want to see pictures of your family. I mean, food pictures are great, but I think more often than not, they just want to see the real you and how you use your time. Because what it is with social media is you want people to come to you not because you look good or you're the best, but you want people to trust you. And that's the most important thing for me, Cheryl, is I'm not, I'm not a one-off person. I'm a relationship person. And people need to understand that engaging in business, it's about relationships. So if you're showing your best, which is great, show some of your off days. And people just, you know, give you like a care emoji or a heart, like, hang in there, you know. But just being honest about your approaches to life and how you approach your business will have people stay near and dear to you. And I could say that that's been, I think, my strength in the past 13 years of the show.

I understand you have a book coming out in the fall as of the recording or livestream of this video. But can you tell us about the book that you're working on?

Absolutely. You know, the moments of solitude and stillness through COVID and lockdown helped me to reflect on what I wanted and what I didn't want to keep. In COVID. So it's like, what I want to count in and count out when we come through COVID. And I had to really take a look at myself, and I had to look at the relationships around me. And I came to some, you know, very painful conclusions on, on what that was and, and what I needed to do to evolve personally and professionally. Um, so I put together some of those reflections in the book and as honestly as I can be about how I kind of made it through some of that journey that was, like I said, like a rude awakening. But when you are in a position, and Cheryl, you can attest to that, you know, we're very busy people. I'm a giver. I'm in the community. So I'm always lending a hand to someone. But, uh, when all that is removed for you, from you, and, and you're in that room and you're thinking, wait a second, you know, um, are my needs being met? Uh, is this what I need? And when you have all of that time to, to collect your thoughts, you realize that there's a major shift that's happening. That you're not getting from certain relationships, and there are certain things that you're not allowing yourself to achieve because of the blocks through, through limiting beliefs that you— that I— and I say you, I say me— that I have adapted to cope in my life that were hindering me. So as I release them with love, I release those relationships with love. So that I could better myself to enter into the destiny that is designed for me. So that's what happened. And I said, okay, I'm gonna put it to paper, and, and hopefully, uh, these musings will able to help people, um, you know, understand what it is to live with purpose. And sometimes you have to get through those moments of pain to understand your purpose. So 100%, that's what the book entails.

That's great, Nikki. Thank you so much for being on today. And, and how would your, your URL, uh, NikkiClarkShow.com?

Uh, yes, NikkiClarkNetwork.com is the website, and, uh, the network, uh, you can reach me on Instagram, uh, NikkiClark31, my forever age, and also on Twitter, uh, NikkiClark2020, and, uh Yeah, if you have a moment, uh, please reach out to me. I, I love to connect.

And, uh, yeah, she is nothing if not authentic, and I appreciate you being on Cash In On Camera today. So connect with Nikki, and we will, uh, definitely be seeing you around. Nikki, I know we're connected, I think, through a variety of different means and groups, and I think we're now—

the Prince—

places.

Yeah, we're gonna have a Prince coffee and talk about all the Prince things.

We are totally doing that. I don't have my I don't have my Prince mug handy, but I do have one, and you probably do too, so we will meet again.

Yes, I got a Prince t-shirt from back in the day. Yeah, awesome.

We will compare Prince stories. Thank you so much, Nikki, for being on today. Really appreciate it.

Thank you, Cheryl. It's been an honor. I had a great time. Hope to connect