Brand of Brothers
A podcast about the world of branding. From tone to typography, we explore how logos happen, what makes advertising successful, and why this all matters.
Brand of Brothers
Social Media: How To Make It Work
🎙️ Social Strategy Simplified: Building a Social Media Plan That Works | Brand of Brothers
Welcome to another episode of Brand of Brothers with Doug Berger and Johnny Diggz, where we’re diving deep into the world of social media—what it takes to actually make it work and how to turn likes, shares, and posts into real results for your brand.
🔥 In this episode:
• Why clear goals and objectives are the backbone of every social media strategy
• How to define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)… yes, including the Insane Clown Posse reference
• The role of personas and understanding audience demographics, psychographics, and behaviors
• Why it’s not just about posting content, but posting where your audience actually lives online
• Tools and platforms for syndicating content (and why you shouldn’t just copy/paste across channels)
• Creating a content calendar that keeps you consistent, coherent, and cohesive
• The three content types every plan needs: promotional, educational, and engagement-driven
• How to diversify with videos, images, polls, quizzes, and user-generated content
• Measuring success with KPIs, analyzing performance, and adjusting your plan accordingly
💡 Whether you’re a startup experimenting with TikTok, a brand manager optimizing Instagram, or a CMO trying to align social with broader marketing goals, this episode offers practical advice and a few laughs along the way.
🎧 Listen now to learn how to:
• Set goals that align with your brand and business strategy
• Find and connect with the right audiences
• Develop a calendar-driven content plan that actually gets results
• Measure what matters and adjust for growth
Presented by Remixed, the full-service branding agency that helps companies craft, launch, and grow brands that convert.
🎶 Music by PRO.
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Welcome to the latest installment of Brand of Brothers. I'm Doug.
Johnny Diggz:And I'm Johnny. Today we're talking about social media and how to make it work.
Doug Berger:All right, let's get to it.
Johnny Diggz:So today we're talking about, uh, social media, social media content, how to develop a plan for your Instagram, your, your TikTok.
Doug Berger:We're talking about all of it. We're talking about how to reach your audiences most effect. And most efficiently. So there are basically five key ideas that go along with an effective plan.
Johnny Diggz:Um, so I imagine that starts with some sort of, uh, goal
Doug Berger:goals. Goals and defining clear goals and objectives are, are definitely the most important pieces of this process. Is
Johnny Diggz:this, um, like an, an area I know. Uh, when you're dealing with websites, we talk about personas. Do you deal with that in, in social media?
Doug Berger:To a limited extent, because you need to know who your ideal customer profile is or your ICP. If you're a fan of, uh, of acronyms, which I know you are Insane, clown Posse, love them. Them two. Them two. So in this Juggalo for Life. So, so in this process, so in this process, we need to define, uh, why we're doing what we're doing, right? So is it to generate brand awareness? Is it to, uh, drive traffic to a website? Is it to create conversions? Is it about generating leads? What, what is the, the ultimate goal and why is it that you're doing this? And, and of course, it's also important to make sure that it's aligned with your business objectives as well.
Johnny Diggz:So, and how do you do that? How do you figure out what your business is? Oh gosh, I have no idea.
Doug Berger:Uh, so ordinarily when we're doing that kind of thing, we put together what we refer to as a messaging brand scape. And that messaging brand scape does everything from either reaffirming or re. Finding your mission, vision, position tone, core values, the list goes on. But more importantly, it's about understanding what your marketing objectives are, uh, in a short term, near term, long term perspective, as well as. Making sure that you understand who your audiences are and not how to bring them to you, but going to where they are. So when it comes to understanding your target audiences, you've gotta research the demographics, you've gotta research the psychographics, right? What are their interests? What are their behaviors? What are their preferences? In addition to that? Um, those personas that I was mentioning, you've gotta put together content that's tailor made for those respective audience members. And then lastly, remember how I just said about going where they are? That's. Where you have to choose the right social media platforms that reach them. So some of them might be on Twitter, some of them might be on Facebook. Yeah, go ahead. Say it. What's,
Johnny Diggz:what's Twitter?
Doug Berger:Yeah, so, uh, Twitter is this, uh, marginally, defunct, it's like threads. Okay. Uh, it, it's like blue sky. Okay. I got, um, it's a pre, it's a precursor to those Mastodon. Is it like Mastodon? So it, it's a little bit, uh, like Mastodon. Okay. Um, it, you know how there was, uh, the like Google wave there? There was, there was MySpace. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It, it's a, it's a precursor to, to threads friends. Ster. Well, that, that's what Facebook is now, right? Sure. Um. Or, or something along those lines. Well, there's a
Johnny Diggz:tumblers still exists. I found out recently, huh? That they're actually growing Tumblr. It's, I mean, it what? What?
Doug Berger:Of course it's growing, right? Yeah. If it's nothing, all it can do is grow. I mean, you know, Reddit. It it is. It's like what Tumblr was. Reddit. Reddit,
Johnny Diggz:uh, has, yeah. I don't know if that, if you is, is Reddit in the social media's realm? I guess I would
Doug Berger:say it definitely is. Yeah. But for the sake of transparency, I have to say that I am a shareholder and, uh, and this is not an advertisement for Reddit. Okay.
Johnny Diggz:Um, but I'm not so, um, so I use it a lot though. I find myself using it more. Then I used to, um, and, and I, I think, wait, have you
Doug Berger:given up on Quora?
Johnny Diggz:Well, I'm trying to figure out why it is, why I gravitated towards Reddit all of a sudden. I don't think it changed. The content changed. Um, but, um, maybe I, maybe I, I found that maybe I was using Twitter less for stuff that I can now get on Twitter.
Doug Berger:What's this? Twitter? Sorry.
Johnny Diggz:Uh, XX is what I'm talking about. Um, the, uh, no, I, I, I just find that, that it's interesting. I also know Reddit, uh, also has been, uh, signing deals to sell their, their data to, uh, to the, the big AI engines so they that are hungry for data.
Doug Berger:Well, I mean, it's interesting to see how things are, are progressing in the social media realm, right? So social media. It is definitely affecting, it has affected SEO in the past. They're trying to reign that in. But here, like you're mentioning with Reddit, it, it, we're moving into a different sphere from SEO to a IOI feel like we're going off on a little bit of a tangent here. Yeah. Um, because, but I think it's relevant. It, it. All of it's relevant, right? We're talking about content distribution and, and where that goes and how that gets to your au your respective audiences. So we talked about defining goals and objectives, right? We talked about understanding who your target audience is. So the next thing is content development and putting it out there. So what do you do first? For me, I like to identify who our audiences are and then establish a list of titles that might resonate with them. You
Johnny Diggz:say like titles, like, uh, subject
Doug Berger:subjects. So in, in this instance, I would actually refer to them as article titles. Okay. Right. So what, what this all is within is a content marketing strategy. Right? And so this content, so that goes beyond social media. It does go beyond social media, but the content plan has to work within the social platforms as well as, you know, the, the blog spaces and, uh, in any, uh, content syndication platforms. So the list goes on. I can see, uh, that you wanna say something?
Johnny Diggz:Yeah, no, I had a question. I, because I've always dreamed of sort of a, a way to post once. And it go, it goes out to all of your, all of your platforms so it can, you know, you have one thing that goes onto your blog, then it goes on the same content goes onto Facebook, same content goes onto Instagram. Um, but I've always had challenges because each of those platforms has its own. Format. They, they, they, you know, it's either Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Like vertical or, or, or Instagram has a weird size. Now is there a way to to, to universalize that today?
Doug Berger:Uh, of course there's a way to syndicate content, but that doesn't mean that you should, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Right? So there are our platforms, uh, like, uh, buffer and I Zoho Social Metrical. Metrical is a great one as well. Again. We're not sponsored by any of this, so we can just talk about that freely. Yeah. But, uh, as far as the syndication platforms are, are concerned, yes, you can phone it in and do one post and hope that one post fits all. But we also know that that's not true because one way that you deliver the message, for example, on on Twitter. You only have a couple words to get someone's attention. Um, I'm sorry, X mm-hmm. Uh, but then when, when you are on, uh, on TikTok, for example, it's not about a text post at all. It's about a video and it's a format that has to be vertical. And these individuals also have a, a relatively short attention span. So can you do a two minute video? Sure. Is it advisable? Absolutely not. Unless you're on YouTube where. On YouTube, you have a bit of a longer, uh, attention span. So when it comes to this content, it should definitely be customized per platform. And not only should it be customized per platform, it should also be scheduled accordingly. So. Yes, you can make it where it all goes out on a Tuesday at eight 30 in the morning.
Johnny Diggz:Right? They like, they, they say that there's an optimal window, but if everybody posts at that optimal window, it doesn't become as optimal, does it? It it does not.
Doug Berger:Um, but. However, not everybody is posting at 8 39 on a Tuesday. Right, right. Um, and, and some of these syndication platforms actually have these amazing tools where you just click a button and it auto automatically, uh, optimizes optimize Yeah. The, the delivery time. Um, and so that, that holistically leads to the bigger picture, which is having a content calendar. So when you're posting on. On X, when you're posting on Facebook, when you're posting on, uh, on, on Mastodon, um, it, it should be consistent, right? The goal here is that everything is cohesive, coherent, and consistent. It's the three Cs that I constantly harp on, and so at, at the end of the day, what you should have is an outline of what gets posted. Where it gets posted and when it gets posted, and that whole component, the why has already been answered in the previous section with regard to, to audiences. And then lastly, we want to, to make sure that, that we've organized it accordingly. So if, for example, you're putting out video content. That video content should be complimented by the text and vice versa.
Johnny Diggz:Is there. Now, speaking of video content, I mean the, the, the type of content that you put out. So, you know, there's texts, there's, there's images, there's uh, now there's like reels, there are stories. Um, there are, uh, what do they call them? Uh uh, this little slideshow, the slide shows slideshow. Yeah, sure. Um, w do you, do you pick one and go with it, or do you kind of do a hodgepodge?
Doug Berger:So there's a time and a place for everything, and you should absolutely diversify your content. And the, the diversification isn't just whether it's video and whether it's a slideshow and whether it's text. In fact, what you wanna make sure is that the diversification is more, uh, around the ideas of promotion and education and engagement, right? So. It's okay to do a self-promotional post every once in a while. It's more important to do educational content. That is something that is mutually beneficial, right? You are passively promoting yourself while also demonstrating an expertise in a certain, uh, content area. And then there's the other side of things, which is the engagement, right? So. Taking user generated content that maybe it's using a hashtag that you've branded or maybe it's, uh, you inviting people for, uh, uh, talking about your product or your service and reposting that so that there are mutual benefits here in that not only are you taking content that is, is positive. Toward you as a brand, but it's also something that positively, positively, that's, it's, it's easier than it sounds. Um, and, and so, uh, that positively reflects the individuals or other companies or brands that are, are helping to promote you. And then there's a, a fourth option for diversification of content and it gets a little bit trickier here, and that's what things like polls and quizzes, um. It, it's really complicated to see these have a positive Im impact. It requires a relatively sizable audience in order for you to actually see, um, a, a, a positive reach and reaction. What,
Johnny Diggz:what do you, what do you do when a client comes to you and says, I wanna make. I think that we just need to make something go viral. Like what does that mean to you?
Doug Berger:Well, it it, that's when you start, uh, going into the realm of, uh, of KPIs. Okay. Um, so you've got key performance indicators, and so the definition of of viral can be different from, from one person to another, from one company to another, right. From one
Johnny Diggz:platform to another. Yeah, that's true.
Doug Berger:Right? So, but if your audience. Let's say that you've organically grown your audience and you only have 5,000 uh, viewers. If there are 5,000 views and reactions, as far as I'm concerned, you've reached the level of being viral, right? But when it comes to what people think of viral, that's. You know, 1.5 million views. Sure, sure. Two, 2 million views. Right. We're talking about things that generate revenue at that point. Right? Right. Um, so when a customer comes to us and says, I want to generate viral content, my internal thought is, that's awesome. Me too. Um, my external thought is, okay, well first what do you define as viral? Right. So we need to end up on, at, at a realistic metric as to what qualifies as viral. Sure.
Johnny Diggz:I know, like I, I make a lot of memes. I especially Seinfeld memes. Mm-hmm. And, uh, they're fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Chad, GPT thinks that too. Um, so the, uh, but. For me, like my, my key K, PI, if I get 50 likes in like the Facebook group that I post memes to and how, and how many
Doug Berger:people are members of these groups? Like a hundred thousand, right? Yeah.
Johnny Diggz:So, and I, if I get 50 likes, I'm like, that's, that's a successful one. If I get seven, then I kind of wasted my time.
Doug Berger:But the goal, the, the question is what, what is the goal? Right. What is the objective? Just making people happy, but, but, but you know, if a, if a customer says, I want a viral post, right? Right. Well, why? Right. Sure. It you, to what end are you, is it for brand awareness? Right. Is it for lead generation? Because if, if that's the purpose, then perhaps social media isn't really the right outlet.
Johnny Diggz:Right, right. Well, so you mentioned KPIs. Um, so what, how do you, how do you track. Uh, your success when, when you're, when you're building a campaign and, and, uh, designing these for clients.
Doug Berger:So it it, I thank you for, for getting there.'cause that's, that's key number, that's point number five, right? So, so far we've talked about goals and objectives. That's number one. Number two is defining who your audiences are, right? So what's your ideal, ideal customer profile? Who are those personas? Establishing that and putting that forward. And then number three is, uh, is generating content and, and having it organized and preferably a content calendar. And then what we were just discussing was a, a mix of media, right? So, uh, is it. Is it text? Is it video? Is it user engagement? Is it, uh, is it polls and quizzes? Educational? Is it educational or promotional? Right, exactly. So then, uh, you're, you're taking us to that, that, that final stage, which is analyze and adjust, right? So before you can analyze and adjust, it's imperative to create a set of KPIs and me and respective metrics, right? So what matters. Uh, engagements, likes, uh, just reactions, right? It depends on the platform. Uh, Instagram, you get a thumbs up. Mm-hmm. Facebook, you can get a wow. Um, and, uh, and, and you can get a cry, but, you know, and, and do you wanna parse out those reactions or do you just wanna look at it uniformly? And then there's the as
Johnny Diggz:engagement, like you don't really care about whether. I mean, I guess it'd be creating a lot of Ries then. You probably don't want that, but Yeah. Right. It, it, well, it, it depe
Doug Berger:It depends on your goals and objectives. Sure. It takes us back to point number one. Right. So then, uh, you, you also have metrics like, uh, people reposting, uh, you have comments, you have other, uh, metrics like, uh, views, right? Mm-hmm. So what matters ultimately, and then are there adjustments that, that make sense? And, and what, what? Tweaks, uh, are gonna make it work. So AB testing, the types of, of information that you're putting out there is, is valuable, right? So look at what the, the results are for, um, for promotional content. If people love your promotional content and they're not responding to polls and quizzes, well, it's pretty clear that you should probably stop wasting your time with polls and quizzes. It's not getting that level of user engagement.
Johnny Diggz:Um, while we're here, talk to me a little bit about the algorithms, because the, my understanding is that certain types of content, the platform itself has. Algorithmic decisions on whether or not that content gets seen by more people or, you know, what, how, what factors do you take into account there?
Doug Berger:So it, again, it comes down to what your goals and objectives are and who your audiences are. So if, if your goals are to play the algorithm game, you're gonna have to focus on negativity. I, it, it, I hate to say it, but when you put things up that are controversial and that have polarity like politics for example, um, anything that could be considered politically divisive, you are likely. To get more engagement because people are going to argue. And the more comments you get, the more reactions you get, the more visible it's going to be. Because what that does is it creates sticky content on that platform that then means that you're gonna be on that platform longer, which is great for two reasons. Um, and both have to do with advertising, right? Because then. Uh, meta, for example, will be able to say that they have x amount of hours of average usage per user, and that also means, excuse me, that also means that they're gonna be able to sell more ads and put those ads in front of more people.
Johnny Diggz:Speaking of ads, um, how do, how does, uh, your, your content strategy. Kind of dovetail if you're doing like social ads or digital, digital marketing. Like is there, is there some, uh, strategy for making them work together?
Doug Berger:The only time that I ever really recommend that, uh, that they, they work, uh. Uh, interdependently is when you boost posts. Um, otherwise we try to keep them separate because it becomes really convoluted to evaluate the efficacy of a program.
Johnny Diggz:Yep. That's an excellent point. That's excellent point. Any last thoughts on the, on the, what people should be focused on when, when thinking about this? I think it's just the big five,
Doug Berger:right? Establish your goals and objectives. Make sure that they align with what your business and brand goals and objectives are. Establish who your, your social media audience. Remember, your social media audience isn't necessarily one-to-one in parity with your business audience. They should be close, but they're not necessarily gonna be one-to-one. Then it's about content creation and scheduling. Right. Make sure that, and I can't, I can't hammer this home hard enough because it, it's really easy to generate content, post it, and then forget to post regularly. Right? That calendar makes it so you're. Consistently putting out content, and that then yields engagement because individuals know when to expect you. Do they consciously know when to expect you? Hopefully not. But they at least know that you're a reliable source of content. And then, uh, the last two points are to diversify your content. So don't just have promotional content. Don't just have articles, don't just have, uh, polls and quizzes. Don't just, uh, you know, repost, do all of it. And then lastly, analyze constantly. And when I say constantly, I mean, you know, periodically. So do things. I, I would suggest, uh, when it comes to, to smaller brands. Do things on at least a quarterly basis, um, just because of bandwidth reasons, right? Um, but when it comes to larger brands, you've gotta be at least monthly, if not weekly.
Johnny Diggz:Well, I think that, uh, that about wraps it up for today and, uh, appreciate your insights into how to build a successful social media content plan.
Doug Berger:And thanks for all the questions. Yeah,
Johnny Diggz:I'm parched
Doug Berger:Thank you for tuning in to Brand of Brothers. Big thank you to our presenting sponsor, Remixed, the branding agency, along with production assistance from Johnny Diggz, Simon Jacobsohn, and me, Doug Berger. We can't forget music by PRO. Speaking of not forgetting, remember to do that like and subscribe thing and find us at BrandShowLive. com and follow us on the socials at BrandShowLive.