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This is the ninth episode in our series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk with social media guru, Jason Elkins, about which social media platforms are relevant for the business owner.

Podcast Transcript

Jason Elkins:
I saw John Mayer go live one time and just show people how he practices scales and he’d go, John Mayer needs to practice. This is, is ridiculous.

Joshua MacLeod:
What I’m hearing is social media is a phenomenal opportunity to share about something that matters. Even if there’s so many people using social media to share about something that doesn’t matter, the platform is there, the access is there. You can really connect with people with something that actually matters.

Announcer:
Welcome to the Growability podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation and business collaboration needs. This is the ninth episode in our series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk with social media guru, Jason Elkins, about which social media platforms are relevant for the business owner. Here’s your host, Joshua MacLeod with special guest Jason Elkins.

Joshua MacLeod:
We’re here with Jason Elkins today, I’m super excited. Jason has been a dear friend and a social media mentor. If I need a really good idea or 17, I call Jason. He always has really great ideas. And Jason, I’ve got my cup of coffee. Jason runs 100 Cups Consulting. So we are continuing today our series about how to sell without being fake. So Jason, this is going to be the biggest challenge of answering that question how do you sell without being fake on social media? But before we get into that conversation, tell me about 100 Cups of Coffee. So where did you get this name? 100 Cups of Coffee. What do you do day in and day out?

Jason Elkins:
I really appreciate you asking the question. Foundationally, marketing coaching. So companies hire me to come alongside them and help them figure out which social media channels we’re going to go after? How do we build a campaign? What do we talk about? What are things that people care about? You mentioned I’m an idea guy, not all of them are good, but we’re going to find one that is over time.

Joshua MacLeod:
All right, let’s just talk about social media. Because this is something that is such a difficult topic in the world. I’m 44 years old, I run a consulting business. What social media platforms in 2021, when we’re recording this, should I actually be aware of, should I be thinking about? Which are particularly good for businesses and what should people at least understand or know about even if they’re not using them.

Jason Elkins:
So I’m going to throw out I appreciate you saying that. One of the things I’m going to throw out is maybe a little industry secret or maybe something that not everybody thinks about with what I would consider one of the most unused social platforms and that is YouTube. I read statistics recently that said, if video isn’t part of your social game over the next 24 months, you are going to be buried and lost. We have to be embracing this. The reason YouTube is so great is that it’s owned by Google and there are multiple areas as you upload a video that you can fill those areas out for support. So the title is one.

Jason Elkins:
You need to make sure you got a lot of good keywords in your title. There’s 1500 characters that you could fill out in the body. So telling people about the video and what you do is great. And then even after that, you can kind of build your own link farm by linking to all your other social channels and your website and whatnot. And I’m more likely to click on a search result if it has a video eight times out of 10. That’ll get 80% more clicks than even the top listing of if there’s a video result in the just general Google results.

Joshua MacLeod:
Wow, okay. Which social media platforms out there with YouTube?

Jason Elkins:
So other platforms, depending on the audience, Facebook is the king still partly because their ad network is just so vast. If you run an ad on Facebook and click a few buttons, that ad could go on Instagram, it can go on mobile gaming, it can go on Spotify, it can go in a lot of places. Their ad network is really incredible and you can dive deep into demographics to get a message to a very specific audience. The more niche you are, the better off you’re going to be in the ad world of Facebook. One of the things, one of the secrets there that I’m seeing more and more are groups that are segmented out to support cause or an industry. People can kind of utilize those to talk to their message to a very passionate group of followers potentially. It’s not for everybody, but that’s something that I don’t want to miss if you’re looking at Facebook for marketing.

Jason Elkins:
LinkedIn used to be something that not a lot of people paid attention to is really a place to put your resume, get a job, that was kind of what you used LinkedIn for. Since Microsoft bought them, I think three or four years ago, they really haven’t messed with the algorithm much. And I’ll have a post on LinkedIn, just a general update that will get comments two weeks later or get a like a week and a half later. Nothing that I post anywhere else will have that kind of longevity. Instagram is really an interesting platform right now and will continue to evolve. They’re doing one thing that I love and that is they’ve got a great relationship with Shopify. If I have a store on Shopify and I connect that to an Instagram, there’ll be a way for me to buy that product with just a couple clicks.

Jason Elkins:
The thing that makes Instagram great is that it has beautiful pictures and there’s not a lot of the same back and forth kind of craziness that you get in the comments section on Facebook. So it’s been like a kind of a nice reprieve from people that just get social media overload and they can kind of be on there, still see their favorite brands, make some purchases and interact. You mentioned kind of these other platforms. It’s interesting, lot of come and go. I think TikTok is really interesting, it’s got the same kind of energy that some of the earlier social platforms seem to have. I could make an argument that if you’re a retailer and you want to show clothing and kind of your stuff within the store, TikTok is a wonderful platform for that. There’s a lot of people on it and they spend a lot of time there. I don’t know how long that’ll last, but at this very moment, you could make an argument that that could be a good platform if you’re going after a younger, somewhat affluent audience.

Joshua MacLeod:
So let me ask this question, Jason. So social media has nothing really to do with business. Business just kind of came in and took over. The thing that was set up to share my photos and videos and what I’m doing and talk about me. Why should businesses invest in social media when it’s not even really a business thing.

Jason Elkins:
It’s gotta be social.

Joshua MacLeod:
Yeah.

Jason Elkins:
So let’s not put 20% off coupons to download on Facebook. At least let’s not do that every day or every time. There’s a construction company that I work with that does mostly state contracts. They’re not winning bids by their social media presence. However, they are hurting for employees. And we are posting a lot of content for them that’s targeting their work environment, what a benefit it is to be there, we’re pushing out videos, sort of commercials for jobs there. We’re talking to some of the old dogs and some of the new hires and getting their perspectives and putting that out there. We’re recognizing people that have done a great thing at the company or won an award for safety. These are constant things that we talk about on their social.

Jason Elkins:
So their platform is really not for their buyers. The platform is really so that they can hire employees easier and it’s a way for them to showcase and support their employees that are currently working there because surprisingly enough, by talking about your people on social, those are things that they’ll share with their family or their family will make comments on or somebody just wanted to be recognized.

Joshua MacLeod:
It’s not only about selling. You can use social media really as a platform to achieve different missional objectives. You need hiring? You can do social media. You want to celebrate your team? You use to media. If you want to build the culture at your organization, you can use social media.

Jason Elkins:
I saw John Mayer go live one time and just show people how he practices scales. And he goes, John Mayer needs to practice? This is ridiculous. Right? But he was showing something really unique that you’d never would be able to see anywhere else. Nobody’s going to shoot a documentary about his practicing. It wasn’t even a shot, they had candles, the lighting wasn’t great. It didn’t matter, it was a wonderful piece of content.

Joshua MacLeod:
What I’m hearing is social media is a phenomenal opportunity to share about something that matters. Even if there’s so many people using social media to share about something that doesn’t matter, the platform is there, the access is there. You can really connect with people with something that actually matters. Jason, this has been an incredible conversation. I want to make a huge sales pitch right now for Jason Elkins. So I’ve put the little web URL right up there, 100cups.coffee. If you Google that, if you Google A Hundred Cups of Coffee with Jason Elkins, you will find him. If you do not have a social media strategy, if you do not have a social media person, if you are confused about social media, I just, frankly highly recommend Jason Elkins. Do yourself a favor, check out 100cups.coffee and start sharing things that really matter on your social media platform. Jason, you’re delightful. Wonderful to have you. Thank you to our live lunch and learn listeners and we’ll see you next week. And I think Bernie will be back. If not, then Jason’s going to be on from now on because he’s just so great.

Announcer:
Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world, and we appreciate your support.