What Happens When a Social Platform Puts Community, Data, and Ease of Use First w/ Brianna and Rachel

What if your social stack was actually simple—and proved its value? We’re joined by Brianna Crossley, Director of Growth & Engagement, and Rachel Bacall, Engagement Manager, from Pollen Social to unpack a platform built for velocity and clarity: multi-channel publishing from one place, clean analytics that tie effort to outcomes, and AI features that help you ship better work, faster. Starting at $25 a month, Pollen is designed for busy operators and lean teams who need results without the bloat.

We trace Pollen’s Charleston roots and community-first mindset—think partnerships with AMA, chambers, and nonprofits—then step into the bigger vision: a data lake that blends your historical performance, CRM-lite contacts, and anonymized external signals to deliver smarter targeting and timing. Whether you’re a food truck, a multi-location brand, or a growing agency, the aim is the same: reduce friction, focus the message, and move the metrics that matter. Expect practical tactics too: how to write calls-to-action that earn real comments, why replies are strategy not afterthought, and how to balance AI-generated assets with authentic, human storytelling.

Creation stays central with email templates ready now and planned integrations for Canva and a video editor like CapCut, while the AI caption generator offers multiple on-brand tones from a single upload. Agencies get unlimited seats and client access without extra fees, plus easy company toggling from one login—so collaboration, approvals, and reporting stay fast and visible. If you’ve ever asked “Isn’t this just Hootsuite?” you’ll hear what’s different: approachable UX, community DNA, and a roadmap wired to make marketers smarter through actionable insight, not endless settings.

Subscribe for more candid conversations with Charleston’s builders and brand leaders, share this episode with a marketer who needs a simpler stack, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public, nonprofit organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by supporting technology-based startups, academic research, and industry partnerships. Through funding, coaching, and its investment arm SC Launch, SCRA helps early-stage companies grow, commercialize ideas, and scale within the state’s key innovation sectors.

King & Columbus is a full-service marketing and advertising agency based in South Carolina that helps brands grow through a mix of creative storytelling and data-driven strategy. They offer everything from branding and content creation to media planning, digital advertising, and PR—focused on delivering measurable results across digital, social, and traditional channels. https://kingandcolumbus.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friends at Charleston Media Solutions Studios. Thanks to our awesome sponsors at CMS, we get to chat with the cool folks making waves in Charleston. From business and art to hospitality and tech, these movers and shakers choose to call the low country home. They live here, work here, and make a difference here. So what's their story? Let's find out together.

SPEAKER_05 0:28

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, folks. This is Mike Compton. I am your current president of AMA. And Roombo. I am here with uh Brianna and Rachel from Pollen Social. Say hello, ladies.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Hello. Hi, Mike. Hi, everyone. Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_05 0:43

This is fun, right? The whole studio scene.

Meet Pollen Social and the Hosts

SPEAKER_05 0:46

Like, you know, you're live on radio. Brianna, uh, give me your last name and title and what you're doing at Pollen.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Sure. My name is Brianna Crossley. I am the director of growth and engagement for Pollen. Uh, no small feat, and help them expand and uh do this thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:07

Yeah, nice. And and Rachel, what about you?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Yeah, so I'm Rachel Bacall. I'm the engagement manager at Pollen. Um, fun fact, was the first employee ever there. So in from the stomping grounds. Um, really what I focus on is strategic marketing, whether that's smaller clients or bigger clients, as well as working with our internal dev team to make sure that we are advocating for all of our current clients, whether that's features or if that's just better practices, help guides. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Right on. What what how long has pollen been around?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Trick question. The concept for pollen has been around for about 12 years now, but it's pollen as a business has really only been around for about a year and a half to two years.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

It was founded by someone local to Charleston.

SPEAKER_05 2:09

Good.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

And the concept originally was to help small business owners grow brand awareness and build communities locally in Charleston and the Southeast. Since then, we have kind of shifted the vision a little bit to include some of the trends that we're seeing in the marketing space

What Pollen Is and Who It Serves

SPEAKER_00 2:32

and uh differentiate ourselves from the competition and focus more on enterprise and larger organizations as well. We do still support small business because what we learned was everyone can benefit from this model.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

Oh. What is the model like? Have you drank it out of this yet?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

I have not.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

My throat just got really dry. Just stole my water. We're sharing. We're all pregnant. I have a water bottle. I have to do that. There's still some in there.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

I have a water bottle. I want to make sure this doesn't hit.

SPEAKER_05 3:08

Describe what Pollen Social does and how it stands apart from everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Absolutely. Pollen is a best water ever.

SPEAKER_05 3:16

This is such a good water. I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

No. Pollen is a platform that helps marketers, businesses connect with their communities, grow brand awareness, and also measure impact. The goal is to help you be smarter and to give you time back to focus on the creative and the things that you really love doing.

SPEAKER_05 3:41

Your best potential client could be Could be anyone.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Could be anybody who needs.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

There's a little bit for everybody.

SPEAKER_05 4:03

Let's let's let the listener get into it. Is it polensocial.com? What is it?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Yeah, it is polynosocial.com.

SPEAKER_05 4:08

Look at me.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

And if you wanted to like sign up for an account, that's app.pollensocial.com.

SPEAKER_05 4:14

Okay, nice, Rachel. A good plug there. So so listeners dig in while we talk about it. So what would Larry Larry doesn't have much of a budget, so I'm assuming because he's a food truck, right? I know food, you know, there's no millionaire food trucks out there yet that I know of. I could be wrong. Uh Brazen Glaze is going to be one of those. Um shout out Brazen Glaze. Anyhow, um, so Larry has a small budget. Your entry point is what for using your platform price point-wise?

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Entry point is $25 a month.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

Come on, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Cost of a cocktail at the Dewberry.

SPEAKER_05 4:52

Nice. Shout out Dewberry. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Their cocktails are good, but they're quite they're they're a little expensive for cocktails, but they're worth it, right?

SPEAKER_05 4:59

No kidding. No kidding. But that's not expense inexpensive. For what do you get out of your platform for that $25?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

For $25 a month, you have the ability to share out your content across all social channels and

Pricing, Features, and UX Simplicity

SPEAKER_00 5:15

analyze the engagement through an analytics dashboard so you can see how your business, how your social is performing and what that's doing for you.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Think about how many apps that we have, right? We have so many apps. We have Meta, we have Instagram, we have TikTok. To post one video, you have to go into individually into every single app to do that. You know how much time that takes?

SPEAKER_04 5:40

It takes a long time.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

If you can post and distribute that content to all of those channels from one place, isn't that simplified marketing?

SPEAKER_04 5:48

Doesn't that sound like Hootsuite? Isn't that already a thing, you guys?

SPEAKER_00 5:52

It is a thing.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

Okay, so what what well how does Pollen Social stick out? Like how does how do you guys differentiate from that big old box of Hootsuite? I like the local pick. I like affiliate marketing. I heard that you guys are into that.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Pollen aims to, well, we aim to reduce the barriers to entry, right? Some of these platforms that are out there, they're expensive to use. Okay. Right. And the more features that are involved, the more complex they get, right? So if it's built for an enterprise company and an advanced marketer, then it's going to incorporate all of those things that they would use in a way that they would do it that doesn't necessarily make sense to a small business owner.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Copy.

Differentiating From Big-Box Tools

SPEAKER_00 6:33

We've made it so simple that yes, absolutely, we have an engagement team that will onboard you and show you around and get you feeling comfortable. But you can sign up and you can navigate without any instruction. That's the goal.

SPEAKER_05 6:49

I have. I did it. I signed up. It was nice. It was a friendly, you know, the user experience, UX. The user face. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Easy to get around, navigate.

SPEAKER_05 6:59

Totally.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Love to hear that. Music to our ears.

SPEAKER_05 7:01

Yeah. So you guys are really honing in on the local space, but then also you're trying to go national, Bree. That's kind of your focus, isn't it? Trying to kind of get those bigger brands.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Absolutely. Yes. I have spent most of my career between Boston and Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_05 7:20

So where are you from?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

From Pennsylvania originally. Okay. Small farm town community. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:27

You can say Amish on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Amish Country. Amish Country, Pennsylvania. Grew up the street, uh, grew up across the street from a Mennonite dairy farm.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Was actually babysat by the Mennonite woman. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Well, you were safe. You were in a safe. I can milk cows, I can shear sheep, I can do all the things.

SPEAKER_05 7:49

Interesting. Turn butter? Yes. So you went from there to Pennsylvania?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Uh Penn State. I went to Penn State for undergrad and then skipped over to southern France for a little bit to study foreign language and international business.

SPEAKER_05 8:05

As they do, as one does.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

And then the minute that I graduated, I moved to Philadelphia and I've just been trying to city hop ever since.

SPEAKER_05 8:15

Okay. Philadelphia, huh? I made a face when it said Philadelphia. I feel like is that a hard place to live, Philadelphia? I have some Philly friends and they're hard people to get along with.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

I mean they're Eagles fans. So let's be let's be real. Yeah, I'm a huge Eagles fan. Oh my god. Go bird. All right.

SPEAKER_05 8:29

Well you're not going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

You can't talk Philadelphia too much now. No.

SPEAKER_05 8:33

No, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

But they're they're they're intense fans, but they're the best kind of fans. Of course. They are their loyalty.

SPEAKER_05 8:40

That's some brand loyalty right there. Exactly. So so you you've had these bigger city uh experiences.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Um I've been in software for my entire career. Okay. Whether healthcare, talent development, educational software, um emerging technologies, everything from augmented and virtual reality, AI, cybersecurity, all these things, right? Um servicing national and global organizations. When I came to Pollen, they were doing the same thing that all local businesses in South Carolina do. Let's build our base here and then we'll expand. And I took one look at it and I said, Well, we're a software company. Why do we have to just focus on South Carolina?

SPEAKER_05 9:33

What's holding us back? She says, Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

If we, you know, have a good product, which we do.

SPEAKER_05 9:38

What do you love about your product, Bray?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Okay. Well, I just said I've been in software for a long time. It is one of the simplest platforms I've ever used. I didn't receive any training from the team on how to navigate or demo the platform before I started working with it. Um this is I say that because the first time I ever did it, um, I found out five minutes before someone said, Hey, can you walk in here and can you kind of show these people around and tell them, you know, what pollen does?

SPEAKER_05 10:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

I was like, oh yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_05 10:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Guess it's go time.

SPEAKER_05 10:18

And and it it it went flawlessly. It's super easy. That's what you love about it is the usability of it.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

It's user-friendly.

SPEAKER_05 10:25

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

But what I really love about pollen is the culture that we're trying to cultivate and the future vision.

SPEAKER_06 10:36

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I'm not a marketer, I'm a software person. And the future vision for pollen is really focused on the data and analytics component of marketing and making people smarter marketers. And to me, that's gold because I've worked with businesses all over the world and every single one of them in some way struggles with measuring business impact. And that's exactly what Pollen aims to do. So, yes, it can distribute your content. Yes, it can help you create content. Yes, it can manage your contact lists and help you target specific audiences. It can, you know, help you spread workflows and workload across your whole team so that you're not, if you're a small team, right? And most of us are, we're all trying to consolidate and do as much as we can with as little as we can.

SPEAKER_05 11:39

That sounds awesome. Um it's almost like a dream platform, to be honest with you, the way you s the way you talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Well, it's my dream. Oh, there you go. It is now anyway.

SPEAKER_05 11:48

When you when you get all the data.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

What do you do with it? Do you have a consultant that helps with you know, Larry, to read the data, to notice any kind of spikes

Careers, Culture, and Product Vision

SPEAKER_05 12:01

or dips, or consult with them on anything like that? Is that what you do, Rachel?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

That's a huge part of, I'd say, the engagement team. So um we try to touch base with our clients on a regular cadence, and that could be from, hey, I have an idea to hey, I don't understand why this post failed, or I have ads behind this post and I'm getting more traction organically, right? So though that during those sessions, we we go through our very uh fun performance screens that's fun. I I think it's fun. They're colorful. We had like a rebrand launch. So I I've seen Paul and come a really long way. And um, obviously, if you're looking at data, it's how do you digest that data, really? Right. And for us, um, Harley's on my team as well. She's in the room. Um and we really try, we try go, we try to go past just the storytelling, right? How do we connect the dots? So you want to tell your story, but you also want to know what's happening, and engagement is way more than just likes and follows. You want the actual interactions and you want that brand advocacy and loyalty. So that's something that we love working with users, and that's that's utilizing data, and that's also utilizing the message behind um a customer.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

So you're able, I I know I had I struggle commenting and engaging on that part. I'll like just about everything for you, right? Love, heart, whatever, celebrate, LinkedIn folks, right? So all that. But the conversation part of it, getting in, digging in, and making a comment, I need to do a better job of.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah. Or I would argue that whoever's marketing to you is not doing a good enough job giving you that call to action.

SPEAKER_05 13:43

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

So there are tricks, right? Okay. As a marketer, as a social media um manager to help you engage with the content or kind of incentivize you to engage with the content.

SPEAKER_06 13:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

An example would be if you are putting out a video creating you know a pasta dish, right? And you say comment recipe below to receive the full recipe book or whatever that is, right? Mm-hmm. That's giving you a reason.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

That's right, incentivizing the comment for sure, and then you didn't using that data and that. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

It could also be go ahead, Rachel.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

You know, I was gonna say a huge thing that I always encourage our users to do is something like this. You make a comment, you can reply to that comment, and you can really inform that user, and you could start a dialogue with a conversation. You want people asking questions, right? And being curious when they're commenting, not saying, love this, lol. We want to start a conversation. So I think how you respond to comments can be there can be a lot of strategy there as well.

SPEAKER_05 14:55

This is all smart. Listeners, are you writing this down? I am. We'll have it in the show notes too. Um talk about the growth marketing trends that Pollen is using. How are you guys getting out there? We're we're this Martech theme that we're in right now is it's pretty cool in my opinion, and people seem to be liking it as well. The whole you know, Charleston scene is just growing every day in the tech scene, and you guys are there in the lead too. So w what are you doing to kind of grow yourself and grow the community? You guys talk about being a community-oriented organization, right? I know that, and then thank you for sponsoring the Mount Pleasant Charleston uh I mean so the Mount Pleasant Expo. Yeah, um, that happened last September because this will be launched in October. So it happened last September. So that was I mean, that that was a success, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Definitely, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 15:56

Uh, how else are you guys getting out there?

SPEAKER_00 15:58

And that is a great example of you know partnering with a local community and trying to engage with the local community. Wow, I said that twice. Yeah, engage with the local community. Um strategic partnerships.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Working with businesses that are either adjacent to what we're trying to accomplish or support our culture, right? So certain nonprofits or like CAMA, um, like the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, anyone who is fostering the same kind of relationships that we're trying to build, it makes more sense to partner with them and create programs that allow us both to win.

SPEAKER_05 16:45

Yes. Yes. That's the collaboration bit that I've been talking about this whole time. These past three years, um, is building AMA into a collaborating type of organization that we're we're we're moving into. Um

Turning Data Into Action

SPEAKER_05 16:58

talk about your affiliate program because there might be some agencies out there that want to. I know there's agencies out there that want more information and maybe even another revenue generator.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Yeah. Thank you for that segue. Yeah. Um partnership program. That's what I did.

SPEAKER_05 17:16

Why I'm here. The only reason why I'm here is so there's no dead space. And to read these questions here that we talked about.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Uh I'm very proud of our partnership program because I was integral in building it. Oh. Uh so this is one of the first that I've built myself, which was kind of fun.

SPEAKER_05 17:45

Are you coding too? Is that you getting digging in there? How smart are you, Brian?

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Uh very. We have people for that. But the no, the piece for me is the relationship building, and how do we and you know, how do we help each other and how do I we incentivize each other to grow? So with that, we're offering if you, you know, so camera.

SPEAKER_05 18:15

Yeah. Our membership.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Every time someone joins Pollen through Camma, that client gets 20% off or essentially a second month free off of their membership. I love it. And you also get that same 20% incentive.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

The organization. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

So you can generate revenue by promoting pollen, and both of us win.

SPEAKER_05 18:44

Oh my gosh, that's so smart. How is that going? Are you are you feeling that that's going well? Does it need some time to grow? How can we help?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

It is going well.

SPEAKER_05 18:55

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

We absolutely would love your help in growing it even more. Um that program has opened the doors to a lot of new clients, but a lot of relationships that we are really excited about. Um, getting into the Latin American community and some of the uh more diverse communities in Charleston and nationally, right? Um, nonprofit organizations, things like that. We also have um incentives for nonprofits and for startup companies.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

We want to help you. We we started as a startup, right? We know how challenging it is to grow that business and to get off the ground, and we want to support you in your efforts to scale. Love that. So you name it, there's a program that can support you through Pollen.

SPEAKER_05 19:59

We we know some startups.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Just a couple.

SPEAKER_05 20:01

We know a few now. Now that we're now that this whole market Martech campaign is going through. Uh that's amazing. And and I love the fact that you're wanting to give back to the community and support the community. That's just crucial. Um that's awesome. So, Rachel, we know um where Brianna was from. Where where are you from?

SPEAKER_02 20:23

So I'm actually from South Jersey. So I've lived in the first place. All of us are coming. Yeah, lived in the Philly area. Um, I my Go Birds. Um Cheers, girl.

SPEAKER_05 20:37

Uh-huh. My better watch what I say here.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah, you you at the back. Um

Community Partnerships and Affiliates

SPEAKER_02 20:44

so yeah, I'm originally from South Jersey. Um, I also did two years of undergrad at Penn State as well, which is funny. And then I finished up at Drexel. Um, I majored in psychology. So um I love bringing in my psychology experience when it comes to working with clients on a daily basis, um, which is really fun. But Charleston, I've been here now for like five years, and I love it here. I'm sure we all are on the same page, but I'm excited to, you know, get married here, grow a family here, um, and see where Do you have a ring on? I do have a ring. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I just feel like this community, especially when it comes to marketing, they're people are supporting each other. And that's very different than how that is in Philly, how that might be in LA, how that might be in New York, right? Yeah. Um, seeing people support each other is a beautiful thing. Um, and that's how a startup gets their boot it gets their boots off the ground, right?

SPEAKER_05 21:45

Right. Right. I feel like you guys have been around for longer than a year and a half, though. You guys are like feels like uh the the idea's been around for 12 years, I understand that, but the actual brand feels more mature than two years. Thank you. I like the logo too, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Yes, which is really fun because we worked on that like for a while, going from we used to be orange and now we're purple, and we really try to find our own space within this this marketing tech platform industry, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Someone in the original group had to have been a Clemson fan.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

It's like orange and blue. We I mean, as you can see, purple and blues are very much more involved in this tech world. Uh it's more enticing, uh it's eye-catching. So um I'm sorry, I'm forgetting what the question is.

SPEAKER_06 22:34

Right, I'm getting distracted by our logo.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Um Yeah, the brand seems more mature than it is, which I can only really attribute to the people involved because while the company is young, the people who are working with pollen on a day-to-day basis are have been around for a long time and have been very successful in marketing and in the tech world before they came to Pollen.

SPEAKER_05 23:05

So you have a good team.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Yeah, and I think the one thing that really helps us is we all believe in this product. We all want to see the success. It's not for us, it's not just a job, it's it's like our own little pipe dream of our own. So being able to help make pollen what it is and being a part of it so early is really such a cool opportunity, I would say.

SPEAKER_05 23:26

So it is. And I'm excited to be a little small like puzzle piece in that opportunity. Um uh and and I'm excited to get into the system and use it too. So thank you for sponsoring AMA.

unknown 23:37

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 23:38

Um, if you don't know all of our social media, our Markom's chair is Rachel, uh, co-chair with her and Amanda, and they are running all of our social media through Pollen.

unknown 23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:49

So this is all working out. The plan is coming together. Uh like a team. I love it when a plan comes together.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

Yeah, and instead of just sharing through text messages, right? Like, hey, post to this. You guys will see in real time, which is gonna make our collaboration as a camera team so much better.

SPEAKER_05 24:07

Oh, there's even more she says. There's more I get to dig into.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Oh, yeah. That's awesome. And you're gonna become a pro at pollen by the time at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_05 24:16

Pro at pollen. You can you use that. Pollen pro. Pollen pro yeah, all these things. Yeah, great. We're marketers around here, aren't we? Look at us. Look at us making things happen. Um, what what's in the future for pollen? Oh, it's a tough one. My ten-year plan is I'm gonna be the mayor in Mount Plum. So everybody laughs. Harley just got she just woke up from her nap back there.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

You know what? If you I'd vote for that.

SPEAKER_05 24:49

Oh, hey, look at that. I got one vote. Two votes. Two votes. There we go. Oh, Miracle Matthew. Harley, I got four votes now, but it's a 10-year plan. I I got I got time to adjust that plan.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

You got time to get the word out there.

SPEAKER_05 25:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

No, Pollen.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

I think we can have an idea of a of a plan, right, for the future. But something that is really unique to Pollen is we really take feedback from users, and that helps dictate what our five-year, ten-year plan is going to be. So we could bring up a roadmap and we could look at that, but that's really significantly going to change from tomorrow to a year from now, right? The the fee the key features will always be there, but the feedback that we get from users is invaluable. Like it's it's what helps us, it's what gets me excited to wake up every morning.

SPEAKER_05 25:37

Nice. Is the feedback is the complaints about what pollen should be doing better. That's what wakes Rachel up in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

I've been there. No, I'm just kidding. Um just teasing. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 25:49

Of course it is.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Our customers are more like partners. So we take their suggestions and their feedback very seriously. On the roadmap, though, which goes back to what I'm most excited about working with Pollen, is the focus on data and analytics and where we're headed with those features. Our goal is to make people smarter marketers. And we're using all these trends that you're hearing about AI, predictive analytics, all those things to help you do that. We are in the process of incorporating a data lake that will sit at the center between subscriber activity and data, products and services. And that'll help transform that raw data that you pull in into actionable insights. So one of the things that you do as a marketer, right, is look at the demographic information and help you create targeted communication and messaging to different audiences, right? Well,

Team Backgrounds and Brand Maturity

SPEAKER_00 27:05

what if you had a whole bunch of anonymized data at your fingertips that would give you insights into who your people are, where they shop, how much money they spend, where they live, what's going around going on in their communities to allow you to make that message even better and even stronger.

SPEAKER_05 27:30

Data lake?

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Data lake, it's an industry term. This is news.

SPEAKER_05 27:34

This is great. Industry term data lake. I love it. Is this lake getting filled from other streams of data resources, or is this this my own resources and my own data that I'm getting? It's both. That's filling this lake up.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

It's a I mean, all of our data is out there, right? Um and it's for sale, whether we like it or not. So by bringing in data from everywhere, um, we can anonymize it and we can turn it into valuable insights for you. Right. It also incorporates your own data. So part of pollen is the contact list management, or I would call it CRM Lite, right? So you can connect with a point of sales system, or you can connect with um MailChimp or Constant Contact or Salesforce, what have you, right? To pull in your clients and prospects and information that you have stored around them to help you create newsletters or um, you know, promotional messaging, text message outreach, things like that to targeted audiences. So if you're a restaurant, for example, and you want to look at people who haven't come to visit you in the past three months, right? If you have that data in your system, you can create some sort of incentive and you can mask text, excuse me, mass text them or email them to let them know about an upcoming promotion just for them, right?

SPEAKER_05 29:10

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

That pollen can do today.

SPEAKER_05 29:13

Really? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

The futuristic component is more like, okay, so of those people, what information do we know about them? How much, you know, if we have their address, maybe that tells us now this is where we get kind of scary, right? Um, that might tell us what their median income is, right? So we know how to adjust our pricing or kind of what sales to put forward. Uh it might tell us, you know, when back to school is, or it might tell us kind of what's going on in the near future and allow us to engage with that.

SPEAKER_05 30:01

Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot to chew on. But it's a lot that goes on within the app. So that whole that data analysis, that data lake is really, really cool and super useful. I'm sure it's going to be super useful for us for sure. What um I didn't really get to dig in too much to pollen though. Do you guys have like templates that we can use? Like it's almost like a mini Canva within the system where or do we So that's actually a great point.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

We're working on an integration where Canva the one thing we want to do with Pollen is we want to be able to integrate with other platforms. So if that's Canva, if that's a cap cut, whatever that application is, we want to bring that into Pollen. So eventually there will be an integration with Canva. And if you have a Canva account, which it's free, so I feel like everybody does, there will be a version of Canva in Pollen. So if you wanted to edit stuff on the go, right? Okay. You have an image you wanted to edit, and you're not ready to just post it right there and then, you'd be able to add those different fonts, those, those filters to it.

SPEAKER_06 31:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

And then go ahead and publish it in Pollen. So there will be that sort of integration, and we are also trying to work on coming up with a video editor uh integration as well.

SPEAKER_05 31:13

Yes, please. Yep. You were reading my mind, Rachel. Because Rachel does all of our well, most of our social media videos too. Like I'll send her a bunch of photos and some really crappy videos, and she'll all of a sudden within minutes turn around this nice little video piece, right? Uh thank you, by the way. Of course. What are you using?

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Yes. So I'm using CapCut. So that's why I love this integration. CapCut's a hard one because they are direct, they have a direct contract with TikTok and Meta, right? So you can post directly from CapCut to Meta and TikTok. Um, but to me, the templates, the pre-made templates that other artists have, it's as easy as just dumping your content into it, right? So I'm not even going and editing the little the little every little thing, right?

SPEAKER_05 32:02

So because you'd be really quick about it.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

I would. I mean, I used to do that, but now if there's templates, it's really cool because you have different artists and different creators going ahead and sharing that and they're getting paid from that. So that's yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

Okay. So Cap Cut, and then in the CapCut,

Roadmap: Data Lake and Integrations

SPEAKER_05 32:20

you find other artists' templates and they're creating templates every week, every month.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

Honestly, every day.

SPEAKER_05 32:26

Every day there's a new template that could be cool, it could be used. So you just data dump your photos and videos in there, and then it spits this out. No wonder I don't. You know what I mean? Come on.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

Yeah. I mean, and a lot of these platforms too, you can edit from there. They'll have their own editing suite. Like um TikTok has TikTok studio, Instagram has um, I'm not remembering the name, but Instagram has edit or something. Um what is it?

SPEAKER_06 32:51

I think it's just called edits. Edits thing.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yeah. So a lot of these, a lot of these platforms want you utilizing their editing app, right? To to do it. But we have noticed that it doesn't matter if you're using an editing app or where you're posting it from, it's not like they're gonna push it better. It's not like it's gonna be It's old school, eh? Yeah, yeah. A lot of people are understanding. Yeah, that if I have to edit it on this platform for me to eventually go viral, right? To hit that virality. But it is it they're not gonna push you better just because you post it directly from Instagram. They're just once again making another platform that you can utilize that is owned by the same corporation.

SPEAKER_05 33:30

Right. Just trying to keep you on the platform.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 33:32

Yes. Um cool. Well, good to know that's in the future. Good to know what we can do now.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

We do have email templates available now.

SPEAKER_05 33:43

So if you're using I was specifically thinking about email templates too when you brought that up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

If you're using pollen for newsletters or for outreach in that sense, those exist today. We also have the AI content generator, which helps you create imaging and messaging.

SPEAKER_05 34:00

Oh, say more.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

So kind of similar to any of those, Rachel can speak to it better than I can because she uses it with clients every day. Yes. But I mean, Instagram, I know has these features where you can help build it can help you build things with AI, right?

SPEAKER_06 34:19

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Pollen will do the same thing. Oh. And I'll let Rachel talk about that one.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah, so it's it's really exciting. We're in early stages, right? We it's it's called beta right now. So all of our users on Pollen have access to the image generator. And similar to Chat GPT, you have to kind of give it a lot of information, a lot of direction for the picture to come out the way that you want it to look, right?

SPEAKER_06 34:43

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Um, however, the cool thing about Pollens AI generator is they're learning, it's a learning uh model. So anytime you're utilizing it, it's learning something about your brand.

SPEAKER_05 34:52

Good, good, good, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

So the more, the more stuff that we're adding to Pollen, let's say you add your brand kit details, this AI generator is going to be able to utilize that information without saying, use hex code H345, whatever it might be, right? So right now what's really cool is we see users utilizing the AI image generator for let's say they have an event coming up and they don't have time to fit to take content or get any content prior to. They're they're easily able to just put in a little prompt and it's making something sleek, and you can make it human-like or you can make it cartoon-like. It's really up to you and what your messaging is. But it's another way to create content without actually doing it yourself.

SPEAKER_05 35:36

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Work smarter, not harder.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

Work smarter, not harder. You're right. But you can tell on social who's using AI. Yes, right? Yes, that's fair. Not there yet. Oh, I got cloned.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I heard. I heard. You told me.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

Yeah, I got cloned. Um, level up video.

unknown 35:56

Oh, Matthew.

SPEAKER_05 35:56

Oh, that's right. Matthew Brees. Yeah, dig south. Dig South. Um, he base camps out of Code Trust. Code and Trust. And I went and chatted with Andrew and Bob over at Code and Trust, and Matthew was set up already, and I'm like, can I squeeze in right now? I'll do this right now. And they had a meeting, and they're like, Yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. So Matthew hooked me up. I don't know. Hopefully, this is you know launching in October. I'm sure I'll have it by then, but uh you know, it's August 21st, Matthew. I'm looking for that. Yeah, I was hoping we're gonna have it today to talk about. Right. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

I saw Stan do that too from Stanfield, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 36:30

Mine's gonna be better. Uh Stanfield. Saw him yesterday too. Um anyhow, um, I'm excited about using the clone, but my point is you can still the AI is not there yet. You still need to put that human touch in there. You still need to put that in the city.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

And I would argue that that's really the future of social media is the human touch and the personalization component. Already we're seeing some social media platforms, YouTube being one of them, start to disincentivize the use of AI.

SPEAKER_05 37:06

Yeah. Rachel, you're telling me that, weren't you?

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, if you were right now, what what's really working is like, you know, obviously using your face, but it's easier to use AI, right? And it's we're getting lazier as humans, but a lot of these smarter. You just said it, working, but also it's e it's easier, right? Like I don't I don't have time to go f film videos. I have to focus on the business operations, which is fair. That's fair. However, I do think that um with what's going on with AI, right? Like it's gonna be tweaking, tweaking it. You're gonna have to reprompt it a couple times. So I think that it's is it easier to go film the content yourself or is it easier to use something like AI? Because you're right, if someone is seeing something like AI, there's companies like YouTube who will be flagging your videos, and that could affect okay, am I able to share my content with my current subscribers, right? So you have to be careful with what you're using AI for and what the images look like.

SPEAKER_05 38:07

Okay. No matter how many times you prompt, it's still gonna be an AI thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Say more.

SPEAKER_05 38:15

Right? So when you said you just made you said something that kind of clued me in, like you're gonna have to reprompt to get what you really, really want. And that's fine. That's that's totally practice, like best practice. But it doesn't matter how many times you reprompt that, it's still gonna be an AI product at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

It's still gonna be flagged by if it's an image, absolutely. Now, we also have caption generators, which is harder to determine, right?

Canva, CapCut, and Creation Workflows

SPEAKER_05 38:39

So caption generators.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

If I'm creating content, or maybe I'm uploading a video or I'm uploading a carousel to post. Right. But I want some help with my messaging.

SPEAKER_05 38:51

Copy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Our AI content generator can do that too.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

That's cool. You guys have that too.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

And it's it's easier because it's taking better from your photo, right? Or your video, the content.

SPEAKER_05 39:05

Wow. Yes, data, and then saying, Oh, you don't want you want to say maybe you say this.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Oh. Yeah. And it's usually I only have to do it prompt at one time. It gives you three different versions to choose from. Uh-huh. You can also pick the tone of voice that you want, which I love. Yeah. Really? So I can say I want it to be friendly, I want it to be sassy, I want it to be professional.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

Yeah.

unknown 39:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:26

Make mine sassy.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Let's make a little bit sassy. Sassy clean. Harley can work on that over there while we're that'll be great.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Harley's like, what?

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Um where it gets really cool is the AI insights.

SPEAKER_06 39:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

So, yes, we have content generation, but we also have an AI assistant that is providing general insights into best practices for marketing. So if I'm not a marketer, maybe I'm brand new to this, maybe I'm right out of college and I'm working with this team and I don't know what they're talking about necessarily. Um, I don't have 10 years of experience. It can tell me, hey, you know, based on these things, marketers tend to do this. Or this is the best time to post across platforms.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Um for your industry, we recommend posting this amount of times in a week, right? Sure. So they'll be AI specific, they'll be specific to what your industry is and what your company is as it learns, right? And as you utilize pollen more, you're only gonna set yourself up for success when you go to activate uh UI uh UI AI features like that.

SPEAKER_06 40:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

But going back to what you said earlier about how does pollen help you analyze data, how does it help you be smarter? Yeah, right. The AI insights are is also looking at your historical data. So any content that you've created and posted, whether it's on pollen or not, as long as your channels are connected.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

Really? Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

It's looking at your historical information and it's using that to give you insights into what you can do more of or better.

SPEAKER_05 41:13

My gosh. So it's like a team. Like you pollen is the your marketing team right here.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

In past lives, it could take me weeks to look at a year's worth of data and figure out what the trends were, what we did well, where there's opportunity, all of that, right? You're combing through lots and lots of information manually with this AI tool, it can go back as far as you want and it can analyze that for you.

SPEAKER_05 41:43

Within minutes, seconds.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

So you can present to your executive team or your boss or your um client, right? If you're an agency, and you can say, hey, here's where we are, here's how we're making you money, here's what we're gonna do more of next year.

SPEAKER_05 42:02

Real time.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Real time.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

Yeah, so I'm agency XYZ, well, Roombo, um, let's say, and we uh we we we sign in on Pollen and we we add our clients to the list. That's a revenue generator for Roombo, right? With the whole affiliate program deal, right? Just wanted them to spell that out for other agencies out there that have multiple clients. Is that how that works?

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Yeah. Um well or is it one account through us and then we No, so you can the cool thing about Pollen is you can toggle, you can have as many clients as you want on the s with the same login, right? So you can toggle between company to company to company without logging in, logging out. So is that the question you asked? Okay, okay, I like that. I like that though. That's good to know. It's smart. I like that.

SPEAKER_05 42:56

But my thing was how it's gonna get the bite of the affiliate.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

I I misunderstood a question.

SPEAKER_05 43:02

Yeah, no, I'm trying to make some money here, Rachel.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

I don't actually know the answer to that yet.

SPEAKER_05 43:05

That's fine.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Um the affiliate program is meant more for organizations kind of like AMA or like Charleston MLS, for example, is a real estate group where they don't um

AI Images, Captions, and Insights

SPEAKER_00 43:22

they have members and they're incentivizing those members to use a product, but they're not mandating the use of it. If you're an agency, you're using this as a tool to help you manage all of your clients. That's more of a you know, contract partnership.

SPEAKER_05 43:41

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

And we do have specific agency pricing. There we go.

SPEAKER_05 43:47

And then that agency can repurpose that or price it out how however they want to price it out. Yeah. Upsell whatever it is. There we go. There's there's the okay. Newly.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Ding ding ding. Yep. We have a we have specific pricing for agencies and anyone with multi multiple locations where you pay one price for the first, say, five locations or five clients, right? And then it's a very small number after per client after that.

SPEAKER_05 44:17

Copy. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

And what's cool?

SPEAKER_05 44:20

Well, it keeps going.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

It does keep going. Different from most of our competitors, we don't charge per user on pollen. So if you're an agency and you have 10 clients, you can have either the marketing manager or business owner or whoever you're working with day to day different seats or whatever. In pollen to see what you're doing, to see the analytics. So you don't have to be constantly sharing out data to them. They can come in at any time and they can say they can see what the engagement was from over the last week, or they can measure engagement against conversions to their website or in-store traffic. They can do that by themselves, and it's not gonna cost either one of you anymore.

SPEAKER_05 45:10

That's cool. Yeah, because it's tough to have you know buy different seats, right? And have people pay it another upcharge. Uh note that we need to get Nick Spencer that data and that that information on Plen. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

He would be he so for example with CAMA, we what is it? 12 of us, is there 12 of us on the board?

SPEAKER_05 45:30

Uh 12, 13, which is common twenty, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

So everyone can be added to the same camera account on pollen with different uh user level uh permissions, right? So if Nick wants just data, we could make him a company manager where he can go in and export data, right? Yeah. And let's say you're like, I want nothing to do with it. We make you view only, and you can just you can just uh operate it, right? You can just uh have a better understanding of what is Rachel and Amanda doing. So you can micromanage us all you can do. Oh, yeah, that's what I do. I micromanage. Right? Like, but no, it's really about collaboration. No, a hundred percent. You could see something, leave a comment, um, and you don't have to send me an email, right? Like I'm seeing it in real time on Pollen.

SPEAKER_05 46:11

So, listeners, if you're not signed up, you need to sign up now. Yes. I don't know if this past 53 minutes has changed your mind and sold you on this, but um, I'm I'm in. I'm all in. Yeah. Um, so thanks for your time. For sure. Is there anything else? I mean, I can only like we gotta dig in, right? And we gotta leave some for the listeners to find out. But did did we miss any touch points that you guys want to chat about? Thank you for your support with AMA.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

Um looking forward to it. Thank you for supporting us. Yeah, no, that's a great time collaborating with you. Oh, cool. Yeah, finding new ways to get involved with the local community. Awesome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 46:55

Yeah, all right, good. Well, if we covered all of pollen, we've covered all of AMA. Covered Plenty Pollen.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

Is there anything else that you want to know from our team of experts or you know, just on a personal level?

SPEAKER_05 47:09

Right. No, I'm gonna dig in. I've already made a pollen social account. I just have to dig into a little bit more and then I'll be emailing you guys for sure. Yes. All the questions.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

And we can get that account linked with the camera account.

SPEAKER_05 47:21

There we go.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

You got one new one login. One login.

SPEAKER_05 47:25

I love that. Um, Rachel Brianna, thanks for your time. Pollensocial.com.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

You can follow us as well, Pollen Social on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, YouTube.

SPEAKER_05 47:42

And what's great about their social media is that you're gonna get inspired to do other social media because they're on all the trends. I've been watching. I've been, you know, Bree did this crazy yoga thing the other day. I thought she was gonna fall on our ass, but I was waiting to the end, but she's she stayed.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Oh, we have outtakes. We'll post the outtakes behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_05 48:02

My point is, you'll get inspired on their social media to create

Agencies, Seats, and Client Access

SPEAKER_05 48:05

your own. So thanks, ladies. Thanks to Paul and Social. And um uh thanks to Charleston Media Solutions. Thank you, Matthew, our engineer. Harley, nice to see you again. Um, and thanks to uh DJ Jerry FeelsGood for the beats. Um, this has been the Charleston Marketing Podcast. We'll see you next time, folks.