Ep. 284 - Ask Us ANYTHING❓BORING Company Tactics! Employee Social Media Takeover CRUSHES IT!➕ ADVICE on Issues with FRIENDS!

Summary

Episode Summary: "Ask Us ANYTHING❓BORING Company Tactics! Employee Social Media Takeover CRUSHES IT!➕ ADVICE on Issues with FRIENDS!"

In Episode 284 of "Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson," hosted by GURU Media Hub and presented by Marigold, Jay Schwedelson delves into an engaging Q&A session addressing both marketing challenges in conservative industries and personal advice related to friendships. This episode provides actionable strategies for marketers navigating restrictive environments and offers candid, albeit blunt, advice on handling common friend-related dilemmas.

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1. Navigating Marketing in Conservative Industries

a. Common Challenges: Limited Creativity and Engagement

Marketers operating within conservative or traditionally "boring" industries—such as manufacturing, accounting, legal services, or consumer healthcare—often find their creative hands tied by strict brand guidelines and industry norms. Jay Schwedelson highlights a recurring question from listeners:

Jay Schwedelson [01:19]: "Jay, I work in a boring slash conservative industry and my hands are tied on being able to be overly creative. What can I do to drive engagement?"

He emphasizes that attempting minor creative tweaks, like adding emojis to subject lines or launching isolated campaigns (e.g., April Fool's), often fails to produce significant, sustained engagement. These efforts are typically seen as one-off attempts that don't contribute to a long-term strategy.

b. Strategic Approaches: Revamping Content Formats

Instead of focusing on superficial changes, Jay advises marketers to implement comprehensive strategies that offer sustained engagement:

• Introducing a Second, Distinctive Newsletter [02:35]:

  For companies bound to a standard, uninteresting newsletter, Jay suggests launching an additional newsletter with a radically different format. For example:

  Jay Schwedelson [03:23]: "One of the best ones that you could do is an insider secret format. All right? And this is where it's literally called, you know, the insider secret or the insider tips this week."

  This approach allows marketers to provide valuable, niche content without altering the primary newsletter, thereby maintaining brand consistency while offering fresh value.

• Mythbuster Format [04:25]:

  Another effective strategy is the "Everyday Mythbuster" format, where each edition tackles common misconceptions within the industry.

  Jay Schwedelson [04:27]: "You take whatever are the myths— the most common beliefs every week, and then you talk about them. And it makes your company seem like a thought leader, which you are."

  This format not only engages readers by debunking myths but also positions the company as an authoritative voice in the field.

c. Enhancing Social Media Engagement

Jay transitions to discussing social media strategies tailored for conservative industries:

• Employee Takeover Days [04:52]:

  Allowing employees to take over company social media accounts for a day can significantly boost engagement.

  Jay Schwedelson [04:54]: "Nobody cares. It's wallpaper. What can you do to stand out a little bit that you can get the okay on, right?"

  By letting employees showcase their daily roles and personalities, companies can humanize their brand and foster a deeper connection with their audience. This tactic has been proven to increase engagement rates by approximately 40%.

• AI-Generated Industry Predictions [06:26]:

  Utilizing AI tools like ChatGPT or Grok to generate industry-specific predictions can create compelling content for social platforms.

  Jay Schwedelson [06:26]: "Industry you're in, then you show that in social posts, this is what I said is going to happen. And then you have your take on what you think is going to happen. And that is awesome."

  This method leverages technology to provide insightful forecasts, establishing the company as forward-thinking and data-driven.

• "Would You Rather" Post Series [06:55]:

  Engaging audiences with interactive "Would You Rather" questions tailored to the industry can stimulate conversation and participation.

  Jay Schwedelson [06:55]: "Would you rather invest $10,000 today or get $50,000 in 10 years? I don't actually know the answer."

  These posts encourage audience interaction, enhancing visibility and fostering a sense of community among followers.

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2. Personal Advice on Friendship Issues

Shifting gears, Jay addresses a series of personal questions related to maintaining and managing friendships. His responses are notably straightforward and unapologetically blunt, offering no-nonsense solutions:

a. Addressing Financial Obligations Among Friends [09:12]

Jay Schwedelson [09:12]: "Hello, you owe me $40. Can I have my money, please?"

Jay advocates for directness in financial matters, emphasizing that delays in addressing debts only exacerbate awkwardness.

b. Handling Friends Who Seek Favors Exclusively [10:00]

Jay Schwedelson [10:00]: "That person is a clown. Because they're using you. They don't actually like you."

He advises distancing oneself from friends who exploit the relationship, labeling such individuals as lacking genuine friendship intentions.

c. Dealing with Friends Who Constantly Brag [10:33]

Jay Schwedelson [10:33]: "If you just run around telling people how great you're doing, you're actually having a problem."

Jay recommends limiting interactions with friends who are excessively boastful, suggesting that such behavior often masks underlying insecurities.

d. Maintaining Friendships with Changed Individuals [11:54]

Jay Schwedelson [11:54]: "There's a lot of people, 8 billion people out there. Make new friends."

He underscores the importance of evaluating whether a long-standing friendship is worth maintaining, especially if significant personal changes have led to a disconnect.

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3. Key Takeaways and Insights

• Long-Term Strategy Over Quick Fixes: Instead of implementing minor creative changes that may not yield substantial results, marketers in conservative industries should focus on developing robust strategies that provide ongoing engagement and value.

• Humanizing the Brand: Allowing employees to represent the brand on social media can significantly enhance engagement and internal morale, creating a more relatable and authentic brand image.

• Interactive and Insightful Content: Utilizing AI for industry predictions and creating interactive content like "Would You Rather" posts can drive higher engagement and position the company as an innovative thought leader.

• Directness in Personal Relationships: Being straightforward and honest in personal interactions, especially when addressing sensitive issues, is crucial for maintaining healthy and genuine friendships.

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Notable Quotes

• On Newsletter Strategies:

  Jay Schwedelson [03:23]: "One of the best ones that you could do is an insider secret format."

• On Employee Engagement:

  Jay Schwedelson [05:47]: "Have about a 40% higher engagement rate."

• On Direct Communication with Friends:

  Jay Schwedelson [09:12]: "Hello, you owe me $40. Can I have my money, please?"

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Conclusion

In this episode, Jay Schwedelson effectively bridges the gap between professional marketing strategies and personal relationship advice. For marketers in conservative sectors, his insights offer a roadmap to revitalizing engagement through innovative content strategies and authentic brand representation. Simultaneously, his candid approach to personal advice underscores the importance of directness and self-awareness in maintaining meaningful friendships. Whether navigating industry constraints or personal dynamics, this episode provides valuable lessons for both professional growth and personal well-being.

Transcript

[Jay Schwedelson]

Foreign.

[Co-host]

Welcome to do this not that the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately. You'll hear from the best minds in.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Marketing who will share tactics, quick wins.

[Co-host]

And pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's do this, not that.

[Jay Schwedelson]

We are back for Ask Us Anything from the do this, not that podcast presented by Marigold. This is our short episode where all.

[Guest or Co-host]

Week long we get in questions, we.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Get in work questions, we get in really ridiculous questions.

[Guest or Co-host]

We try to tackle one of each.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And if you want to submit a.

[Guest or Co-host]

Question, you would be extremely cool.

[Jay Schwedelson]

You go to jschwettletson.com there's a button that says podcast. Another one says Ask us anything. And we love getting questions. So we're going to do the work question first. Something a little bit different, though. In the last 30 days or so.

[Guest or Co-host]

We'Ve gotten basically the same question from five different people.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And it's a question that I really.

[Guest or Co-host]

Wasn'T even on my radar in terms of a topic.

[Jay Schwedelson]

So we're going to address it now.

[Guest or Co-host]

So this one's for George, Rachel, Trent, Valerie, and Robin.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And they all basically asked the same question. Jay I work in a boring slash.

[Guest or Co-host]

Conservative industry and my hands are tied.

[Jay Schwedelson]

On being able to be overly creative.

[Guest or Co-host]

What can I do to drive engagement.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Because the regular stuff just doesn't do it for my company. So it's this idea of boosting engagement while playing it safe. And I think marketers make a mistake.

[Guest or Co-host]

And here's what happens.

[Jay Schwedelson]

So let's say you're running marketing at a manufacturing company, at an accounting firm, a legal services company, a consumer healthcare company. That's really boring. You name it.

[Guest or Co-host]

And you've tried to fight the battles.

[Jay Schwedelson]

To test fun stuff and you can't get the buy in because it's, you know, it's off brand. That's not okay in our industry, whatever the nonsense is that they're telling you. But here's the issue. The issue is that you're fighting the wrong battles trying to get, you know, the okay to use an emoji okay in your subject line or to use a funny meme, or to organize an April Fool's campaign. These are a waste of time when you work in a, you know, boring or more conservative company because these are one offs. Even if you get the okay, it's like, who cares? You're not building a program around this.

[Guest or Co-host]

You want to Use your, Let me.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Test this capital, okay, on something that.

[Guest or Co-host]

Could be a winner long term, which.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Can be a winner for you. So, for example, let's talk about your email newsletter and then we'll get into social media. You have a horribly boring newsletter. You do, I mean, is wallpaper on a good day. And for some of you, you can't abandon that newsletter. Your company wants that newsletter to go out. It needs to go out in that format.

[Guest or Co-host]

You're not going to win the day.

[Jay Schwedelson]

In terms of changing that newsletter. But what you can do is say, I want to send out another newsletter, a second newsletter to our database. Okay, let's say your newsletter goes out right now on Thursdays. You can send this one out on.

[Guest or Co-host]

Mondays or Tuesdays or even Sundays.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And you do a radically different format so the recipients don't think it's, you know, oh, they're sending out two newsletters now. It's something different.

[Guest or Co-host]

One of the best ones that you.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Could do is insider secret format. All right? And this is where it's literally called, you know, the insider secret or the insider tips this week. And this is where you can focus on things that are for people that really know what's going on in the.

[Guest or Co-host]

Industry or should know these things, and they don't.

[Jay Schwedelson]

So let's say you're in a boring manufacturing sector. Your insider secret tips this week could be, you know, most manufacturing professionals don't know this hidden production line bottleneck. And then you can get into those details and it could be a really short form newsletter. And it's a way to get people engaged. And what we're seeing from these insider format newsletters, specifically insider format newsletters, we've done a lot of testing. They get a 30% lift in click activity versus the regular newsletter format. Or if you want something besides the insider one, for a new newsletter format in a boring, conservative industry, try the everyday mythbuster format. Right. Again, you call this this week's myth buster. And then you do things like, whether.

[Guest or Co-host]

It'S consumer or business, you do things.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Like, does drinking more water actually clean your skin? Let's settle this. You take whatever are the myths the most common beliefs every week, and then you talk about them. And it makes your company seem like.

[Guest or Co-host]

A thought leader, which you are.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Right? And it gets people engaged.

[Guest or Co-host]

It's so much more engaging than the.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Regular boring nonsense now. So let's move over to social media. Okay, again, boring conservative industry.

[Guest or Co-host]

You're using these horrible templates.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Nobody cares. It's wallpaper. What can you do to stand out A little bit that you can get the okay on, right? Instead of just saying, I want to put an emoji in the subject line. No, sorry, move on. One of the best formats that's working incredibly well is employee takeover days on social media. It's when you let an employee run your social media for a day and it's announced that way so they go on Instagram. Hi, I'm Sarah. I'm in the PR group, whatever. I'm in this division of. I'm in accounting. I lead the marketing team and I'm doing the employee takeover today of our social media. You can do this on Instagram stories, you could do this on LinkedIn, you could do it everywhere. And then that employee takes them through their day and does all these posts all day long. This is what I do. And they post questions, ask me about my day. And the engagement is off the charts.

[Guest or Co-host]

Employee takeover days, which we've all seen.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Have about a 40% higher engagement rate.

[Guest or Co-host]

Than regular social media posts.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And the massive win. It's a big internal morale booster. Everybody internally starts to get excited. They see that friend of theirs that's doing this, they feel like they're part of it and it gets them more engaged with the social media that your marketing department doing. So employee takeover content is absolute gold. I saw this other one that I actually want to do. I think it's so cool, which is this AI generated industry predictions. And I'm seeing these formats where you go on whatever you're in consumer business, whatever you ask, ChatGPT or Grok or whatever.

[Guest or Co-host]

What are your predictions for the third quarter, for the fourth quarter and whatever.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Industry you're in, then you show that in social posts, this is what I said is going to happen. And then you have your take on what you think is going to happen. And that is awesome. The last one, which I don't care how boring your industry is. Okay, you can do this one. This is not that hard. And that is, you know, a. Would you rather post series meaning, like.

[Guest or Co-host]

You can do posts with big headline.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Would you rather everybody knows what. Would you rather just pick one or the other, but you have it be intelligent content. So it could be things like let's say you're in a financial services. Would you rather invest $10,000 today or get $50,000 in 10 years? I don't actually know the answer. And then you detail out what the right move is and it makes you again seem like a thought leader, highly engaging content or, you know, would you rather get 20% off every purchase for life or one time 90% off your biggest order? Or would you rather reduce machine downtime by 50% or increase. Increase production speed by 30%?

[Guest or Co-host]

A would you rather series on social.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Media crushes it because it gets everybody thinking and giving their two cents. All right, so before we get into the ridiculous question, I want to let you know this podcast is exclusively presented by Marigold. Marigold is my email sending platform.

[Guest or Co-host]

They're awesome.

[Jay Schwedelson]

But forget about the fact they're an awesome email sending platform. They just release their best piece of content that they release every year.

[Guest or Co-host]

It is their Consumer Trends index.

[Jay Schwedelson]

They surveyed 21,700 people and they asked them specifically, why do you like this brand? Why do you like this loyalty program? Why do you spend more on products? Why do you do this? Why do that? And the data is bonkers. I mean, usually here, these surveys, they survey like 200 people. They surveyed over 21,000 people. And you can get this for free. And it's ungated. You only have to fill out a form. You just go to meet marigold. That's meat. Marigold.com CTI meetmargle.com CTI the Consumer Trends Index is an incredible piece of free content. All right, let's get into the ridiculous question. All right, so we've actually keeping along the theme of multiple questions, coming in on the same topic and crushing them. Let's crush these. We got in a bunch of questions about advice related to your friends and how to interact with your friends. Again, I have no basis. I am, I am not smart on any level about any topic, but certainly anything related to advice for your relationships or your friends. So whatever I say, you should probably do the opposite and you should ignore this portion of the podcast. But I'm going to rip through some of these questions that we've gotten in related to people writing in and asking for advice for their friends. So we have four questions.

[Guest or Co-host]

So here we go.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And I have not seen these. So this is my instant reaction. Here we go. Jay, what's the best way to tell a friend they owe me money without making it awkward? Well, I mean, I don't even know that's a question. Hello, you owe me $40. Can I have my money, please? Like, it's only awkward because you're making it awkward if somebody owes you money. Hello. Whatever. It only gets awkward if you wait a long time. If you wait six months, you're like.

[Guest or Co-host]

Remember when you owe me $40 from six months ago?

[Jay Schwedelson]

Then you're like, loser. Why didn't you say something six months ago. It's been on your mind, obviously. So it's a fail by you if you wait and don't make it awkward. All right, what else you got? Jay, how do I deal with a friend who only reaches out when they need a favor? All right, well, news flash, that's not a friend, okay?

[Guest or Co-host]

That person's a clown.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Because they're using you. They don't actually like you. They don't want to hang out with you. That's not actually a friend. So I would ghost that person and say, smell you later, me.

[Guest or Co-host]

My advice is horrendous.

[Jay Schwedelson]

I mean, everyone's probably listening. I'm going to get like 4 million negative reviews. What are you going to do? All right, next one. Jay, how do I handle a friend who brags about their life non stop while ignoring mine? You know, that is actually super annoying. I encounter this a lot where people are hopelessly not self aware and they just go on and on about how.

[Guest or Co-host]

Awesome they are and who cares?

[Jay Schwedelson]

It's like, great, dude, you're doing great, whatever. But to tell you the truth, they're really not doing great.

[Guest or Co-host]

If you just run around telling people.

[Jay Schwedelson]

How great you're doing, you're actually having a problem.

[Guest or Co-host]

You're insecure, you're a weirdo, you're a nerd. You need friends.

[Jay Schwedelson]

I'm not going to be one of those friends. So, yeah, I try to avoid those people. And everybody has those people in their lives, and I just try to limit my encounter with them. Wow, I'm really mean today. All right, last question, Jay. How do I stay friends with someone who's changed a lot and now feels like a stranger? You know, that actually is something that's super interesting because I, I say this to my, my good friends all the time from college, and I tell them, I said, you know, if I had met you today and I didn't know you, I don't think we'd become friends. I don't. Because we're so different, you know, some of us. You know, I don't agree on anything that's going on, you know, in the world or whatever. We don't like the same, you know, sports stuff or whatever. I don't know, we don't like doing the same stuff. We're not people that if we met today, we'd be friends. But because we have so much history, you know, it's fun to be friends with them and then we make fun of each other and whatever. So I guess you have to, you have to see, is it, is it worth it? Is it worth it to try to stay in that friendship for you because of longevity and because of history and all that. And if somebody's really changed a lot, you've changed also.

[Guest or Co-host]

Screw it, move on.

[Jay Schwedelson]

There's a lot of people, 8 billion people out there.

[Guest or Co-host]

Make new friends.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Everybody's overrated. I'm overrated for sure. Listen, I appreciate you being here. What would be amazing is if you left this review. I say that often and then everyone's like, who cares? I don't want to leave a review. I don't even know how to leave a review.

[Guest or Co-host]

It's not hard.

[Jay Schwedelson]

You go on, you press a button. Hello. It really does help circulate the podcast and we're trying to grow this crazy thing.

[Guest or Co-host]

So I appreciate it for real.

[Jay Schwedelson]

If you do that. And also go to jayshwalson.com leave us questions and yeah, hope you make new friends because everybody out there stinks. Later.

[Co-host]

You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Subscribe to make sure you get the.

[Co-host]

Latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And hook us up with a five.

[Co-host]

Star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Lastly, if you want access to the.

[Co-host]

Best virtual marketing events that are also 100% free, visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Daymond, John, Martha Stewart, and me. GuruEvents.com check it out.