45: Leveraging The Power of Social Listening with Ivy Thomas-Everitt

Why do some brands build loyal online communities while others struggle? The secret could be as simple as listening. 👂

On this episode of Practical Rebels, we were joined by @ivyeveritt. She is a social media strategist and 10-year industry veteran. During our conversation, she explained how social listening–especially paying attention to critics–is a way to turn tough feedback into powerful content and forge strong connections with your customers.

We also set the record straight on social trends. When you should do them, why you should do them, and why some brands should pass on certain trends. That’s right–you shouldn’t be doing all of them. 

If you’re a business owner or marketer who is wondering how to turn your customers’ feedback into positive actions, you won’t want to miss a second of this candid episode. 

Transcript

Meet Ivy Thomas-Everitt, Social Media Strategist

l 0:00

You're gonna pop it off right away , or what ?

r 0:02

Yeah , I'm gonna pop it off . That's what I do , okay .

l 0:07

I didn't know we were going right into it .

r 0:09

Come on , man , you know me .

Ivy 0:10

No wasting time .

r 0:12

No , no , no , no . Alright , welcome back to another episode of Practical Rebels , Logan . I'm gonna let you handle this and take this my man .

l 0:24

Alright , thank you so much , um . I hope I can live up to that , but um yeah , you know , uh , we're here with Ivy Everett and we're gonna talk a little bit today about social listening and , um , social content and things of that nature . So we will let Ivy introduce herself to the podcast and everyone listening .

Ivy 0:49

Hello , hello , thanks for having me on you guys . My name is Ivy , I am living in Seattle and I work as a social media strategist and I live and breathe the social platforms . I've been in the industry almost 10 years now , which is kind of wild to think . Logan and I actually started my career journey actually started at the same place that Logan was working and we got to really grow together and it's really cool to see where we both are now today . Um , but yeah , really happy to be here . Thanks for having me on you guys .

l 1:27

Yeah , absolutely , and it , yeah , we do have a connection there . Um , we both started in marketing at the same place , same company , at the around the same time , honestly , and um , it's been cool . Even though we've gone maybe kind of in different directions , we sort of ended up in the same industry or stayed in the same industry along the way , just

Why Social Media Marketing Is Multifaceted

l 1:46

kind of different pathways . So it's been fun to watch . I guess both of our journeys side by side .

Ivy 1:53

For sure . Yeah , definitely stayed in the social lane on my side , so happy to be here and talk about all things social yeah , oh , that's like a nice segue into what I really wanted to talk about .

l 2:07

I think is because you know you have always stayed in social . I started you know , in copy and then I went to project management and then I kind of looped back around into marketing and more copy stuff here more recently at hatchmark studio , but I believe you've kind of , like you said , stayed in that lane of social media . What was it specifically about social media that you know ? What was it that drew you to that and what was it that excited you about that and made you want to kind of stay in that niche ?

Ivy 2:37

Yeah , it's so interesting . I think , even growing up , like I was a friend who was like , hey , facebook's here . Like back when Facebook was first launching , I was like helping people make their MySpace pages . I was like every single channel I had curated in a different way for what that channel was like I wanted it to be , and I think it's really interesting to see how that evolved .

Ivy 3:01

And I did segue off a few times like I worked a little bit in , you know , seo and Google ad space , and then also with my time at the wine bar there in Pensacola , I actually did everything from events to design to web and social as well . And I think , like I always find myself back in social and I always like to explore and dabble in different areas just to have a like holistic view of everything that goes into marketing . But it just is this perfect lever between creativity and strategy and I get to use , like , both sides of my brain and it's always evolving . So I just feel like that fits my personality really well , that you can never get bored in social , and so I think that's why I always find myself back there . I love telling a story , I love connecting with people and social is the perfect place to do that .

l 3:56

Yeah , I think you touched on something . Actually , that's really true is that you can kind of do it all in social . You know , if you , because you have to be able to do it all , you have to be a great storyteller , you have to be able to create content , you have to be a copywriter , you know , a lot of times graphic designer . So , even though it's like , oh , I work in social media , that can be , that can be a million different things depending on what time of day it is and on what day . So it definitely does , and whatever account you're working on , because in the industry , you know , we work in several different different industries .

Ivy 4:29

So within that , so something new and I think , like you touched on a really good point , is people that work in social have to be able to view a story and a medium in so many different lenses . Like , oh , how is this going to come across to the viewer If we say it this way or this way ? Will that make a difference If we have this transition at this ? Second , is it going to hold someone's attention longer , Like you're thinking of the story through so many lenses and I think it's so multifaceted , Um , and it just it's always fun .

l 5:01

Yeah , I think I just I don't know if you call it .

r 5:09

I don't know if you call that second guessing or making sure everything's right , but yeah , I mean , every time I post every single piece of copy image , I'm like , okay , that's right . Yep , you know what , you know what ? If it's not , I'll go back and fix it .

Ivy 5:21

Honestly , like that's also my favorite part of social . Like everything is changing all the time . Like some something just might not hit every time , and that's okay . Like you're going to have another chance tomorrow , you're going to have another chance next week , right ? Like try , test , send it . If it's not working , you can evolve . And like that is really a really special thing about social as well .

l 5:43

I think Rampton I've talked about that a few times where you look at a lot of these accounts that are doing like a ton of organic reach every single day , a lot of times people kind of arrive at those accounts and they see the end result . They don't see the five years of someone posting something with like three likes on it , you know . So I think that what you said about you know you can get up and try again tomorrow even if something doesn't hit . It's like that's really not the point . You know what I mean . It's just like it's the tenacity and you know just the grind to just keep doing it until something does it and then , whenever you find that thing , try it , try it again and again .

Ivy 6:18

Yeah , I really love what you just said there . Like it takes time . In social , nothing is an instant gratification , and I think it's so hard when you do see bigger brands or you see something go viral , um , and you're like wait , or everyone is like I want to do that , I want to be that Right , and it doesn't happen overnight in most cases . Like , sometimes you get lucky , there might be a tick tock that goes off like shout out's cool . But overall , like especially when we're talking about brands , you need to understand it takes time , it takes effort , it takes resources and you have to be consistent , um , and once you find that thing that works , keep doing that and then it might stop working . So you pivot , right , but like you have to keep building , um and building and building . It doesn't happen overnight .

l 7:04

Yeah , it is . It's a building process , but also there's a lot of things you can do to make yourself better at it , and I think that you know . I don't think , I know I was reading through an interview that you did recently , and you talked about brands being wrapped up in the benefits of the product sometimes .

l 7:20

And I think we even as you know marketers , I think sometimes we fall prey to that . Sometimes , where you're just like you know what's the value prop , you know like we ought to be hitting on this . I think sometimes and you mentioned that sometimes people just they forget to just stop and listen to what the consumers are saying about the product and talk to us about social listening and how that can make a big difference .

Social Listening: Finding Content Gold

Ivy 7:42

Yeah , I think social listening is like a very layered phrase , so I kind of want to break that down as well . Like , I feel like sometimes people might just think it's scouring a few comments here and there . It's to me , bigger than that . I look at it through a couple different lenses . There's what are your fans saying about you on your posts ? What are they saying in general about your product ? What are your haters saying ? Like , that always drives me like that's the most interesting to me , right , like you can learn so much from people who are frustrated , who are upset , who want more from your product and I always actually love going there first , and not a lot of people don't like to hear what negative things are said about a product or brand . But , yeah , using tools like InfoG Atlas where you can look at all of the different conversation trends right , you can go and look on Reddit is a great source that I like to go dig through . But , um , I think that it , when we talk about social listening , it's a lot deeper than just like what is happening on the comments . Right , like these are oftentimes people that are the consumer and you can take that information and either go help make your product better at a feature feature that they've been begging you for for years .

Ivy 9:07

And then on social , I think , like you can translate that into content . Is there something that you actually know a lot about ? Like we are the experts that somebody's confused on ? Can we then make a tips and trick video to like educate them on that ? That's pure content goldmine . Right , like , oh , I can actually listen to them and then give them something that they didn't maybe want , but now they're going to want it because they were asking about it , right , um , and I I just think that people don't always go down that path , or maybe they do , and then they don't do anything about it . Right , like , the action side of that is also super important , um , and I I think that's something that I've always put into my , my strategy , uh , when it comes to social , uh , to really guide , like content and all things yeah , you mentioned something about , you know , like not everyone likes to go read the negative stuff , um , um , why do you think that is , I mean , other than the obvious , you know , because something you mentioned , it seems so .

l 10:09

It's like take a question that people have , or problem , people haven't turned it into content . It seems so intuitive , um , but some people might be hesitant to do stuff like that , or they might be . I know I've , you know , worked with some people in the past who just think that , you know , the negativity is just like the haters you know what I mean and just like they kind of block it out . But why do you think some people might be hesitant to dig into the stuff that they might not want to read ?

Ivy 10:37

I think it's scary .

Ivy 10:39

You put so much passion and time and effort into building a brand or a product like you you it's hard to admit that some things still might need improvements , right , I think that at the end of the day , it's hard to get feedback about ourselves .

Ivy 10:51

It's it's hard to really look at those things that we need to improve . And so , yeah , I think it's scary , but it's also so powerful when you actually show your consumer that you care about what they're saying . Like that just builds instant trust . You know , oh , I'm going to go back to this product time and time again because they actually delivered on something that was frustrating for me . And then I think , with , like community management , sometimes brands will think like , oh , just sending a reply and saying we hear you is like enough , but it's not . Like if they go back to your product again and they're having that same experience again , that's going to create a lack of trust . So , yeah , I think it's scary for people to admit when there's things that are wrong , when they put so much time and effort and passion into building something . But it's OK to not be perfect and have to improve as well at the same time .

l 11:46

Yeah , I think that . So whenever you know this , obviously , but um worked in hotel marketing and a lot of times they call it service recovery .

l 11:54

You know , a lot of times people just want to be know that they were hurt . You know , in some cases , and sometimes that saying like hey , I hear you is enough , but it does it for some cases it's not going to be enough , right ? If someone's just unhappy about something or they feel like something is genuinely wrong , they're going to want you to take that next step right , like they're going to want you to go further than just saying , hey , I'm listening . So what you know , I know you already mentioned , you know , like , turning that into action . But what other tips do you have , I guess , where someone says , okay , I've identified this problem , I've listened to my consumer , you know what's step two or step three of that process ?

Ivy 12:30

Oh , I love this question and I think it's a problem that a lot of brands , especially large brands , are trying to find solutions for . I do not think that these things are not things people are talking about . Right , but if you're working at a very large corporation or you're working for at a company that has a lot of layers and stakeholders , a priority for a product per se or an offering might not be to just worry about like this noise on social . So I think it's building a case and like showing , okay , time and time again and I'm speaking specifically from like a social perspective how do I help push our product to get better based on this information that I have ? Right ? So then , yeah , what is that volume ? Is it five people or is it 10,000 ? And is it time and time again ? Is this a consistent theme ?

Ivy 13:30

And just really using the data , the right people to share that information with , and asking and being curious like is this something we can solve ? Why haven't we solved this ? Is this something we knew about ? You know , just like getting the answers to those questions . And again , when we talk about like overnight success , it might not be something you can do overnight , but it's something that you can showcase to leadership and your brand Like hey , I'm invested . I noticed this problem . Here's the solution I think that we can provide and hopefully um to anyone listening . You have good luck with that and people hear you , because I know that's not always easy .

l 14:20

Yeah , good luck with that . Um , I something you meant I was thinking about , like , is there like this , like benchmark , like , I guess , red flag , because something you said about you know , is it five people ? Is it thousands of people ? No matter what , there's a percentage we can probably come up with , and I don't even know if you have a number in your head . This is just me spitballing . But is there like , is there kind of this , a frequency that you've that you've said okay , we've established that this isn't just an anomaly , this is a problem and it deserves our attention and at least gets the ball rolling on . Hey , do we set a meeting ? Do we add it in our monthly report ? What do we do next ? Thing like that .

Ivy 15:06

Yeah , I think it depends on where you are at in your journey with this right . Like , if you're starting from zero and you're like I want to build a social listening , or like I want to look at what our consumers are saying , if you're doing an audit , if you're doing brand research , um , I think more so looking at like anecdotal themes through , like okay , we hear this , we've heard this , here are the different themes that we've seen , and then from there , is it something we can solve ? Like , not everything that you hear is something that you can solve , um , right away , but maybe there's a win that you can solve and show you're listening

From Listening to Action

Ivy 15:43

, you know , out of the 10 things you hear . Solve and show you're listening , you know out of the 10 things you hear . And so I would even say start small with that . But I don't have a number of like hey , we heard like this thing on social . Because to somebody like you talked about hotels , right , one person complaining about , let's just say , bedbugs is like you immediately need to solve that .

Ivy 16:08

Like that's extreme Right , but like five people saying that the umbrellas are an ugly color , like is that really going to be something that you need to go solve ? So I think it's really dependent on the theme and the problem . Um , when we think about volume , but um , I know for um , when we think about volume , but um , I know for from my experience , like , if you're hearing that somebody is has an opinion one way and that multiple people have that , okay , there's a theme right there that you can draw and make content around it . And it's more of that in my mind . Um , because when you talk about negativity , that can have so many different places to fall into the communications vertical of is that PR ? Is that customer service ? Is this a social thing that we can just help support ?

l 16:54

So I think that it's interesting too , because I think that what you mentioned like starting small , even for someone who's just getting started with this they could say like like you could almost like rack up a couple of easy wins you know what I mean get your confidence up and maybe be able to see the effectiveness right off the bat , rather than going to solve this like this complex thing that's going to take , you know , like a year to unravel . Um , like you said , you know maybe . I mean , if everyone's complaining about something like and it's an easy , why don't you just go fix it ? Or in at least like say and make a , you know , create a win out of that . You know what I mean . Like don't just fix it without saying anything . You know like say like hey , we fixed it , and like we were showing that we were listening , here's why we fixed it and all this stuff .

Ivy 17:43

Yeah , why we fixed it and all this stuff . Yeah for sure , and I think um something that like I find really fun I just love solving problems Like I just like give me a puzzle , I'm there , but I I really um think like we're seeing social shift right Like we've had this like years of just dopamine rush hit , hit , hit , fast content , go , go , go . People are actually craving a bit more of that , like longer form content , like more value , and if you know , that just sets itself up perfectly for giving this kind of content to them , like an explanation , like explainer video , tips and tricks . Um , maybe even just like I don't know a blog that you can write for something that like comes up on like an FAQ . Um , I know , logan , you recently , you guys and Ramsey , you guys were talking about the zero click marketing and how filling out that information um , you know , to get to rank in the AI summaries um is super important , and I think like that poses itself really well to this as well .

Ivy 18:48

Like you hear a problem online , like should we write about that and make sure that it's like something that comes up in search keywords ? So it also expands beyond social , in my opinion .

r 18:57

So yeah , yeah , I think . First off , I got to give you a shout out for referencing one of our past podcast conversation . You're the first guest to do that , so kudos to you on that .

l 19:09

It's already . The check is in the mail . I love it .

r 19:14

I just love how you're using feedback from the social channels to educate and entertain at the same time to solve a problem and show your clients , customers , fans whatever , followers , whatever that we are listening and we may not be perfect , but we're working on it . And you know , feedback is not a negative thing , it's feedback to turn around and turn into a positive . So I love how you're doing the social listening and you know the feedback everybody I mean , like I said , feedback has a connotation of negativity . It's not , it's just feedback . Take the negativity out , use it and then move forward .

Ivy 19:53

Totally yeah . I always love taking a negative to a positive , is what I say .

l 20:00

Well , hey , that means the feedback is just opportunity , right ? Whether you want to seize that opportunity or not is up to you as a brand or a business owner or what have you right , yeah , um , yeah . So let's just say , like someone's listening to this , maybe they're a brand manager , you know , business owner , marketing person and they're like all right , social listening . It's my new , my new identity . This is what I'm going to do now . I think you mentioned a platform earlier that you use . What is you know what's the , what's the ? I don't know how to do it .

l 20:34

How do I do it ?

Ivy 20:36

Starter kit a great question because you can feel so overwhelmed Like , oh my gosh , there's so many places to look . Um , maybe you don't have a budget to buy a tool or invest in that Right . So I think it just depends on on what resources you have . I really personally love natively searching keywords . Like all of these social channels are keyword focused right now . Like you can type in your brand name and you're going to get videos , you're going to see comments , and that would be like , if you don't have a budget , like I would start there . Like just search your brand or like search for words affiliated with your product that you think you know um might land and then see what people are saying , see what people are saying about your industry , see what people are saying about your niche through the videos or the posts that you're seeing on platforms like TikTok or Instagram or or X , if you use that .

Ivy 21:33

Still , um , but I think that um , beyond that , like there are tools that help you do this . Infog is a great one . Um , I really love brand watch . Um , I I think going in and building a specific dashboard for your brand and then being able to pull out keywords and themes with a Boolean search is super helpful because then you can track in real time like , oh my gosh , people are saying all these things . That feels more of an ongoing play If you're building reports and you have to share what people have said about you today or like , what is the sentiment around our brand over the last month ?

Ivy 22:11

Right , like , those tools are going to help you do that , yeah , but I really think that there is so much value in using the resource that's at the tip of your fingers and going on these platforms and just searching those keywords and looking at what people are saying . But it really depends on what you have available to you and you don't need all of these fancy big tools to just go and see what people are saying , because people are sharing information all the time .

l 22:41

Yeah , I like that you . I like that you held up the phone , because we always talk about people like how do you find the trends , and like , time and time again , what we come up with is just like well , spend time on social media , you know , and I sometimes I think it's like , it's not like a smart ass answer , you know , it's just like you just like immerse yourself in the platform and it will . You will notice the things that you're looking for . Yeah , I mean . So people are just like how do you find it ? It's like you got to sit on social media , unfortunately Like that's kind of like the whole , the whole point of it .

Ivy 23:15

But if you're building a brand for social , like , you should be on there and figuring out what people are doing , right . So I agree . And you just brought up trends and I think it's so funny because , um , to your point , like , I think brand leaders who might not be on social all the time , but like their whole role is like oversee , marketing or something of that nature , and they want a bandaid solution to find trends right and be in the know . And they want a band-aid solution to find trends right and be in the know . And there really isn't one . There is an amazing platform Shoutout Plot Like . They're incredible . They actually built this new tool and algorithm so you can like .

Ivy 23:53

This is not an ad , by the way , I just genuinely love this platform . I'm paid that . You know . The algorithm actually finds the trends that have popped up , um for you in different categories , like voiceover , transition music , that type of thing , so you can actually categorize by like what is this trend and how is it showing up . But , um , yeah , other than plot like it's , you have to be on social , you have to be in the community . You got to be in the comments . You know a lot of generating from the comments , even now .

l 24:25

So , yeah , yeah , you can't fake it Right , and especially with brands , people smell it from a mile away . If you're kind of phoning it in , if you're just kind of hopping on whatever thing everyone's just kind of , eh I don't know , you know , because people who do it every day . Uh , no different . And that's actually a segue into this other thing , Cause I did want to shift gears just slightly and talk about content and trends .

l 24:48

Can you scoot over a little bit , Like you're like there we go All right , um , but I did want to switch gears a little bit and talk about , you know , content trends , um , and that same article we referenced earlier . You talked about you know brands doing trends , but you don't think that every brand should be doing every trend . And I think that there is this there's a feeling right now

Trends vs. Strategy

l 25:12

that people are like we got to get on those trends . That's how , that's how you go viral , right , you know , because that's how everything pops off , at least in their eyes . But you know , brands shouldn't be hopping or jumping to every single opportunity . Talk about that .

Ivy 25:28

Yeah , oh my gosh , this is . I have a very hot take .

l 25:36

Take your time .

Ivy 25:38

Give it to us .

l 25:39

I want it very hot .

Ivy 25:40

Take , take your time . Um , it's really funny because I think that a lot of brands see the virality of accounts like Duolingo . You know you're seeing people just pop off and that's great . If you have a brand that is allowing a team to have the freedom to make decisions and a legal team to back you up and the resources to pay for trademarks and licensing for music . We're talking about a lot of different things that you need to be a brand like that For each key feature , and I also think that virality does not translate to dedicated consumers and , at the end of the day , as marketers , our job is to create profit and grow , brand and translate consumers into long term .

Ivy 26:34

You know , valued customers or partners or clients . A trend might get you visibility , but is it doing what you actually need to be doing ? Um , look , trends are fun . I love them . I'm an advocate for still like getting involved in trends and looking at what's trending .

Ivy 26:51

But there are so many different roadblocks for brands , especially and you guys see these lawsuits that are coming down on companies because they use the sound on TikTok like it's really risky for your brand to also just go all in on trends , even a meme like if you aren't looking at , like , where did this meme originate ?

Ivy 27:13

Like , do I want to be associated with what this started , as those are super important questions that I don't think everyone's always taking into account , um , because they just want that reach and they want that awareness .

Ivy 27:24

Um , but there's other ways to to get that . I mean , craig Hill is , um , an engineering brand . I don't know if you guys follow them on social . They have gotten such amazing , immense reach and awareness by doing like these long form explainer videos where they talk about their product and it's just beautifully edited and cut and designed to like educate about their product . They're getting millions and millions of views on those videos and people coming every day to look for the next one . Like . That's the type of growth and awareness that a brand should be striving for , and that takes time and effort . While trends are fun and I'm always going to continue to like see what the next one is and talk about them it's not , I think , always doing exactly what brands expect it to . Just because you're getting a KPI for impressions and views doesn't mean that you're translating that to dedicated fans and consumers .

l 28:24

Yeah , and we're seeing that same thing in kind of like the SEO space , where that sentiment is shifting , where it was all about just like driving massive amounts of traffic at all costs to people's websites and then now everyone's kind of taking a step back . You know , I've been um tuning into neil patel's um webinars and stuff like that and seeing what he has to say and really it's more about like you know , is this content actually driving leads ? You know , like I mean it in honest , in all honesty . You know , even if you have , you know , content that's killing it with impressions and traffic . You know , can you say at the , at the end of the day , whether it's having any effect on like qualified leads and if it's not , then why are you doing it ?

l 29:09

you know , and so I think that people taking a step back and just kind of asking those kind of kind of just like those root questions , right , it's just like why are we doing this ? Yeah , if our main goal is to make money or to add to our bottom line , um , is that going to help , yes or no ? And for some of these things , quite honestly , a ton of impressions and like a big bit , it might be the thing that unlocks a ton of leads and attention . Yeah , but it has to be done intentionally right . And it has to be done where , like okay , if we get a bunch of leads and attention . Yeah , but it has to be done intentionally right . And it has to be done where , like okay , if we get a bunch of people . Is the audience that this hits going to be our target audience ? Yes or no ?

Ivy 29:48

right . Yeah , that , I think , is the lens you said . Exactly that point that I always try to have is , like , when you think about a trend and doing something , who are we as a brand ? Does this align with that ? Who are we trying to reach and is this going to be the thing that reaches those people ? And , in the way that we recreate this trend , are we still adding value and providing information about what we do and what we are ? I don't think every trend needs to fall into that category , but I think that's a really good lens to look through before you even , like , think about activating right . Like , does this align with who we are , the messaging that we want to put out there , and is it going to reach the people that we want to reach ? Because if it's not doing those three things , then just continue posting your content . Your helpful .

l 30:41

Yeah , no , I think that's , I think that's smart , and I think that you also mentioned make kind of you didn't say this , I'm paraphrasing but kind of making it your own . You know , I think that doing the trend is one thing , but how can you take it and make it work with your brand ? Um , how can you take it and make it work with your audience ? Um , so that it resonates with the right kind of person , so that they see it and that they pick up on it ?

Ivy 31:06

Yeah for sure . Away suitcases did this really well . Um , they I don't know if you guys remember um , the oh my gosh , I have to go look up his name . I'm so bad with actors and actors I know Um , jeremy Allen White . Okay , I should have gotten that one , but Away put the their suitcase on like a New York skyline rooftop with a Calvin Klein pair of underwear on . And they did this because Jeremy Allen White had his magazine cover where he was posing similarly on a couch , and I just thought , like that is a like that is tapping into culture , like that is funny .

Ivy 31:49

Your product is at the very front and center of this and this is now aligning your brand to just like people who , like Jeremy Allen White and really resonate with like the shows that he's in right now . You're talking about culture . You're not just doing some like viral sound that is going to be gone tomorrow . You're actually like making a statement , and I think that is also another lens that I like to look through Like what are the larger signals ? Like what's happening in culture , not just what's happening at the platform level , and can your brand tie into that ? Can they do something funny ? Can they like make a post that might not be real , but it's like tapping into that in a funny way .

Ivy 32:30

Um , yahoo , on April fool's day , they like posted , um , they gave influencers these keyboards that had grass growing out of them . I don't know if you guys saw this and , um , you know , there's just like this perfect tie to like getting outside touching grass , getting off the internet and the internet and provided like keyboard with grass and they sold out Like it's just so like . Those things to me are like funnier and when I think of a trend , they actually have impact for the brand Right and I think that's super important .

l 33:05

Well , I think both of those campaigns , I think the the , the common thread through both of those I'm sure was um , it took a lot of planning and it took a lot of like . You know what I mean . So I think that . But I but I'm not like just saying that , I'm like you know that , clearly , to do it the right way and for it to resonate and for it to really connect , it is a lot of hard work . You can't just phone it in . You can't just say , all right , we're going to do all this stuff and then we're going to sit back and we're going to like light cigars and count up our cash because we're

Creating Meaningful Brand Connections

l 33:35

going to make so much money .

l 33:36

It doesn't work like that . Now more than ever . I sound like an old guy , but the people we mentioned it earlier people are bombarded with so much advertising now , thousands of impressions per day each person's getting .

Ivy 33:51

If you want to stand out , you're not going to be able to just wing it and just say , well , we jumped on this trend , now we should be good to go you know , or you get the popularity for a day and then people forget about you because they're back to their feed , right , and it's like sure , you got , you got that , but like , is it lasting ? Is it going to do anything impactful for you ?

l 34:12

Yeah , Even big albums now , even big artists , like after the tour is gone , people just kind of like all right , that was , that was a thing , like we're onto the next one . You know like , even if they're massive , like people just forget within weeks . It's kind of crazy how these things that dominate some social media trends and like the trending , you know like this is what everyone's talking about , a week later it's like dust in the wind .

Ivy 34:38

I mean just speaking about one of your favorite artists , Charlie XCX think about Brat Summer . Right , that was incredible and it was a social media campaign . It was rolled out with fans . It used that nostalgic , fun design with the words on the album and everyone was posting their version of whatever their Charlie XCX album was called , their version like of whatever their Charlie XTX album was called , and it's gone . Like that was huge . I feel like it's just so wild .

Ivy 35:09

What is the next big thing ? Is it going to be us ? Like ? Are we going to do that ? Like people are getting tired of it , Um , and I think we're going to see that shift and things are going to slow down . Um , and I think that's something for brands to think about . If people are looking for deeper , more important and impactful information or trying to really be selective about where they're showing up and how they're consuming content , that in itself is going to shift how we talk about trends and how we show up , which need to be longer tail . They need to be thought out , they need to be rooted in your strategy for your brand and you said it earlier . Like , that takes time and resources and effort and planning and alignment . That isn't something that you just do overnight .

l 35:54

Yeah , and I've also seen now people are getting it's , they're getting like a little bit , they're thinking outside the box box instead of . I think I forgot what the brand was because I had never heard of it before this , but they it's a .

l 36:07

it's a food brand and they took out a billboard right next to like a McDonald's to sweet green yeah , but that was sort of where it was , like it was multimedia and fashion you know what I mean Like the picture of the billboard was part of the campaign . So I like to have brands are saying like it's not enough just to do the thing Like let's think outside the box , let's do traditional and digital side by side and see what we can create by doing something like that .

Ivy 36:37

And that is something that's super unique doing something like that and creating something that's super unique , such an important thing that I'm talking so much about lately .

Ivy 36:49

That number one , I think like people are we're going back to office , we're starting to do more in person together and I think , like younger generations we've seen through research are extremely lonely and they don't have networks and they don't have these groups of people to like connect with and brands that tap into that real life experience and that like tangible thing that somebody can be connected with , to your brand , and then pair that with social , they're going to win . Like social is not going away , but people do want more in real life . They want more tangible connection and if you can blend both of those two things like I think we're gonna see a ton of that in the next couple of years . Um , yeah , I mean , we already do right . Like you see that with coachella , pinterest does a great job south by southwest , like those things . Like those are events and those are bigger like platforms and moments . But brands that make that for their dedicated fans and like do that special touch point outside of social are going to see like huge gains from that . I really truly think .

l 37:49

Yeah , yeah , I think so too . Um , I think this is uh really good . I think we learned a lot . I feel like I learned . I learned a lot , um , but let's say , someone listened to the whole thing and maybe they were doing something else , maybe they were vacuuming . If they had one , what's the sound bite ? You know the ivy sound bite , like what is the key takeaway ? If it's like I can't do , I can't do all that , you know , like , what is the one thing that you want people to take from this and say , um , you know , just as long as you do this , you'll be all right .

Ivy 38:23

Keep trying . I think , like the number one thing with social is that you need to try and learn and try again from those learnings . Um , just because something didn't work the first time doesn't mean it won't work the next if you try it again in a different way . And don't be discouraged when things take time and they take more time than you thought they would because the investment that you take upfront to really build right and do it in a way that builds momentum and builds community and builds

Key Takeaway: Keep Trying and Learning

Ivy 39:04

like off of learnings from your consumers , that's going to you're going to see so much major success that you can continue to grow even bigger than you could have ever imagined . Um , so , yeah , I would say , just keep trying and learning and taking those learnings to turn them into a win I love it .

r 39:25

Ivy , thank you so much for coming on to practical rebels . That was a master class . I learned so much from you . So , um , I definitely want to stay in touch because you know there's not a lot of social media managers doing it right and you're definitely doing it right , so keep it up . The whole thing about trying , yeah , um , you gotta , you just gotta , keep going . Uh , I'm logan , says he goes . Oh , I'm actually the old guy at the office and I repeat myself a lot , and one of the things I say you can't score if you don't shoot , so you , have to shoot your shot .

Ivy 39:58

Just send it , just just put it out there and see what happens . For sure , thank , you . Ramsey . Thank you so much , logan . This was great . I want to stay connected .

r 40:06

We'll have to talk again soon yep , yep , for sure I'm gonna say Practical Rebels out .