How To Make Social Media Easy And Avoid The Overwhelm! with Mariana Padilla

You can find Mariana Padilla at:
Website: https://www.redlabmarketing.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/red-lab-marketing/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redlabmarketing/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@redlabmarketinghttps://www.tiktok.com/@kerimaletto

Mariana Padilla Podcast Transcription

[00:10:07]Kris Ward: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Win the Hour, Win the Day podcast. And I am your host, Kris Ward. And today in the house we have Mariana Padilla and we are gonna talk social media, but we’re gonna talk about… well, you know, you tell us what we’re gonna talk about Mariana.

[00:10:23]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I’m really passionate about social media, but doing social media the right way, it’s not super overwhelming and begins to take over your life. So that is what I am really excited to talk to everyone about today. 

[00:10:36]Kris Ward: Okay, so how do we stop it from taking over our lives? I know you’re talking about social media should just not be out there like a popularity contest, like throw videos out. We want people to see their face. We want them to like us, but this is in high school. We don’t have a lot of time. We gotta get to the goods. We wanna talk about closing sales or being more direct and more purposeful in our social media. So how do we do that while still being likable and not salesy and all that type of stuff?

[00:11:05]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing that I would say in terms of not letting social media dominate your life is really figuring out which platform is right for you. So let’s just talk through a couple of assumptions here.

[00:11:16] So first of all, if you are not going to be someone who’s going to be creating a ton of video content, I would say obviously TikTok is not the right platform for you starting there. But then also the same goes for Instagram simply because the way the algorithm works and it’s been modified recently over the past couple months, but it’s really, really hard to grow an Instagram following without focusing on video content without reading that video content.

 So, starting there, what kinds of content are you going to be creating? Obviously if you are someone who you know, you wanna be seen as an industry expert, Twitter, LinkedIn are gonna be great platform for you. But really deciding, where you need to show up is gonna be the first thing, and that will be based on a couple things, like I said, the kinds of content that you wanna be creating, but then also the kinds of audience that you are speaking to and the people that you wanna be working with.

[00:12:04] Right. Obviously that’s a huge part of it. When I first started my business, I fell under the social media trap. I have to be everywhere all the time. But then I realized there are really only two places that I need to show up because that’s where my people are. One of those is Instagram and the other of those is LinkedIn.

And so I think that relieves a lot of the pressure, feeling like you have to show up in all the places when you can leverage one or two of those platforms really, really effectively to grow your business and close more sales. 

[00:12:32]Kris Ward: Okay. So what you’re saying right on the bat is, first of all, do one or two things well and then you can figure out what you wanna take from that and if you wanna expand and not try to be all things to all people at all times.

[00:12:46] Right. Absolutely. And it is really tempting because sometimes you hear like, Oh my gosh. We all like.. shift. Everybody run. We have to be here now. Like this is a new thing. I mean, I remember when Clubhouse came out, I was like, Oh my gosh, like, this is it. This is the bomb. I don’t even know if it’s still operating, but I’ll tell you, I’m not on it.

[00:13:04] So it was just like, we all ran like crazy people over there. But the reality at the end of the day is you need a social media strategy and the platforms are going to rotate and change, but it’s about the strategy. 

[00:13:15]Mariana Padilla: Yes. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And I guess there is value in being an early adopter, right?

But I think, we hold ourselves up to these standards of needing to have this multichannel strategy. But then you have to realize that the companies who have these multichannel strategies have people. One person makes Instagram video content, one person does all the Twitter, right? We are not people who have like a 10-12 person marketing team just for social media. So like, it’s really impossible to do that if you don’t want your entire 40 hour work week to just be social media. 

[00:13:50]Kris Ward: Yeah, I mean we definitely talk about being what we call the W.I.N. Formula. So you’re in execution mode 60% of the time, and we’re always using Super Toolkits so that you can compress your work and be operating under that W.I.N Formula.

[00:14:04] So we definitely can repurpose for sure. But yes, when you see big production companies doing something spectacular on Instagram like that, that’s a whole thing on there. So, I wanna back up just for a second because you skipped over something that I think I’ve been ignoring, and I don’t know if we’re going off the course when we talk about this, but one of the platforms you mentioned was Twitter.

[00:14:23] And I find what’s interesting when you said that to me, it popped up in my mind, is something newsworthy happens. Like I will go on Twitter to check it out. Like, “Hey, this will be current” yet, I don’t really think we post much on Twitter. 

[00:14:39]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So Twitter is one of those platforms. It is useful for a couple things. I have a lot of problems with Twitter. There’s been a lot of news that has come out recently about it. It’s just like not a great platform to be on, but there’s a couple reasons to be on there. One of those is if you are trying to implement a really strong PR strategy, Twitter is a great platform for you.

[00:15:00] A lot of journalists are on Twitter. You can reach out to them directly through their DMs and yeah. So it’s a great way to like build relationships with people that way. You know… [00:15:11]Kris Ward: Hold on one second. That’s a powerful thing you just dropped. That makes total sense because that’s where the news is.

[00:15:19] So that’s where the reporters are gonna be. Yeah. So then, hold, I just wanna dive into this for a second. So would I then be, where would I, how would I know who’s who? So would I try to find these PR people on LinkedIn and then go connect with them on Twitter? Like what’s the pathway there? 

[00:15:36]Mariana Padilla: Yeah. And so it’s not necessarily PR people, it’s the journalists themselves. And so…

[00:15:40]Kris Ward: Oh, sorry. Yes, that’s what I meant. I meant, sorry. I’m thinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m thinking… sorry. I’m thinking people too there. I’m skipping ahead. I’m already focused on my PR. Thank you for correcting me. No, the journalist people who will provide my PR. How would I go about tracking that down so that I know who they are on Twitter?

[00:15:59]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, so there’s a couple ways to do that. A good way to do that is to go on and do like a Google News Alert so you can set up an alert on Google News to get notified about articles that you’re really interested in. So, whatever industry in, say you’re in. I’m just gonna throw this out there, like 3D manufacturing.

[00:16:18] Cool. Awesome. I wanna know about news. In the 3D manufacturing realm, you set up an alert for those and then you can see all the articles that come up. And it’s typically the same people who are on a beat until you’ll begin to see their names pop up more and more and more. As you go and you’re like tracking all of these Google News news alerts, you’ll be able to see the journalists who are working on those

[00:16:37] specific beats and then be able to reach out to them on Twitter. Once you know their names, you know who they work for, where they’re published. You can find them on Twitter. The other thing you can do is there is a website called Muck Rack. And so…

[00:16:52]Kris Ward: Spell that, please.

[00:16:53]Mariana Padilla: Oh yeah. M U C K  R A C K. Okay. And so you can get limited features for free it has a subscription service, but that is also a really great way to find journalists, specifically. The whole platform is basically how you client journalists, and I think you can search by speciality like, if they’re specialized in the health and wellness or like whatever it is that they specialize.

[00:17:16] So those two things will help you connect with the journalists that you need to be talking to. Cuz just pitching an article to someone who just like crime, obviously it’s not gonna help you. For those kind of things. 

[00:17:27]Kris Ward: And we could also look at say, Wired Magazine or something and check out who’s in the manuscript there.

[00:17:34] Okay. All right. Awesome. That was I think interesting sidebar, but it was very interesting to me. That’s a learning thing. Okay. Sorry, continue with your brilliance. I just got distracted there.

[00:17:45]Mariana Padilla: No, no, no. I think it’s a helpful tip. Sometimes I throw these things out. I’ve known this and I’m like, oh, someone doesn’t know. Look at this knowledge. Yeah, it’s totally fine. So Twitter is great for that reason. Also for, I would say companies whose leaders want to have their own personal brands. I think Twitter is a great platform for that. You can now publish longer content on Twitter with like their newsletter feature.

I haven’t used that. Twitter’s not my platform where my people are, but you can do that on Twitter now. I think they’re also testing out like an edit feature. I don’t know. They’re constantly changing the rules, but there are reasons for you to be on Twitter if that’s where you’re ok.

[00:18:27]Kris Ward: So I distracted you on Twitter, so don’t worry about Twitter. I’ve got my belly full of Twitter. Now I’m gonna try the journalists there. So go back to… what are some things that okay… how do I go about closing sales on social media? You speak of.

[00:18:43]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, absolutely. So figuring out your primary platform, right? That’s the first step. The next step is really dependent on like how you use the platform.

[00:18:52] So for me, Instagram, I have a lot of people on Instagram. I’ve met people through Instagram specifically, and close sales that way. A great way to do that is just by going through and engaging with other people’s content, it might seem like that’s a strong strategy, but I follow other social media strategists on Instagram and I will comment and leave suggestions in their comment section on their posts.

And people have reached out to me to learn more about my business simply based on like the comments that I left on their content. 

[00:19:25]Kris Ward: Okay, so hold on. So, alright. Let’s say Jane does a very similar, if not the exact same job as you, and then she puts a post up and then you are making comments on her posts, correct?

[00:19:36]Mariana Padilla: Yes. 

[00:19:37]Kris Ward: Now, does she not then think, “Hey, you’re cutting my grass like you are, like this is my stage. You’re getting up and stealing the mic.” 

[00:19:47]Mariana Padilla: That I mean it, I’m sure some people could react like that, but I’ve never had that be an issue. Especially if you’re leaving valuable content, like I’m not saying,
“Hey, come check out my page.” Like I’m a better strategist.

[00:20:01]Kris Ward: No, but if you’re leaving valuable content. Is there not… and maybe I’m coming at this from the totally wrong angle, but I’m just throwing this question out there even more so if you’re leaving really valuable content, then maybe you’re up showing James bandwidth and yours is wider. Do feelings not get a little funny there?

[00:20:23]Mariana Padilla: I haven’t had that experience and I think probably the reason why is because the folks that I’m following and engaging with have much bigger audience. So, I mean, we’re talking of like macro influencers, right? Hundreds of thousands, millions of followers. So for them, like I probably..

[00:20:39]Kris Ward: That’s an important tip. 

[00:20:40]Mariana Padilla: Yes. Yeah. Okay. 

[00:20:43]Kris Ward: So that’s an important tip. Okay. So you’re dealing with somebody that’s got such a huge audience. It’s not even gonna see your comment half the time, but either way. And then the people that you’re now commenting on, they’re gonna be like, “Hey, this one might be financially or whatever. I just feel like this other person’s outta my scope, but you’re contributing. And so now they feel a little bit more relatable to you, and you’ve gotten some business from that.”

[00:21:04]Mariana Padilla:  Mm-hmm.

[00:20:04]Kris Ward:  Okay. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, Yeah, that’s good. All right, go ahead. 

[00:21:08]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, so that’s the first way. And I think there’s a mindset shift that needs to happen when it comes to social media, because I think a lot of times the emphasis is only on content creation.

[00:21:20] Right? Like, what kinds of content do we need to, right. Yes, important, but how you use the platform is just as important, right? So the algorithm also rewards you for just showing up on the platform. The more you use it, the more you like and engage with other people’s content, the more your content gets seen as well.

[00:21:37] So you have to show up.That’s another part of it. So beyond that like I said, just commenting, engaging with other people’s posts, but then, I always like to welcome new followers. As long as it’s someone I go check out their profile, like we are vibing.

[00:21:54] I like what they’re doing, they could be a potential client. I always welcome them. Just say, “Hey, I’m so glad you’re here. I really thank you for the follow. If you have any questions, just let me know.” It’s not salesy. People ask the questions. Then we start a conversation. It comes out of the DMs.

[00:22:06] We on those zoom call, we then we’re working together, so I’ve definitely had that happen, too. So it’s really about content and then also community building and really building those relationships in a way that it is authentic and doesn’t make people feel super salesy. It’s not overwhelming, I guess.

[00:22:26]Kris Ward: You know, it’s so simple and it’s come up a number of times, but I swear to God every time, I had the saying like, “Oh yeah, I forgot. I knew that. Right?” So sometimes you have to be reminded and reminded, reminded like “You are right.” There is a social to social media, more importantly that the platforms.

[00:22:42] Do want, like you are gonna be rewarded. They do wanna see you on there. You can’t just, we get you’re a hundred percent right. We get so focused on producing content cuz that’s what we hear all day long. It’s no longer negotiable. It is what it is. You gotta be doing videos and blogs and everything and posts and blah, blah, blah.

[00:22:59] And then, you’re like, okay, it’s up. Like I’ve got it up for today. It’s done. Let me get off this platform. But we can’t control that. We can control the amount we engage the community we build, and it is really, if not, it’s maybe even the more important part than posting. Cause if you think about it like life, when you go into a scenario where you’re looking at a speaker on stage, there’s one speaker, but the networking really comes into the people you sit beside or that you meet at the event.

[00:23:28] So you’re not not gonna go because, oh, I didn’t get to be on stage. Right. Or you’re not gonna go on stage and then leave immediately afterwards. I’m not talking to any of you. Right. Get away from me. Right. You’re there. It’s like, oh, they saw me on stage. Great. I hope they connect with me. So I think we do skim over that a lot.

[00:23:46]Mariana Padilla: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I equate it to just like running in, just publishing content and not doing anything else, like running into a room, shouting your announcement, and then like just immediately meeting with no engagement. Right. Like you don’t wanna be top debt you wanna be engaged with. Yeah. And so I think that’s the key of all of it is like that authentic connection. 

[00:24:07]Kris Ward: Right. Okay. All right. I’m having a moment here. I’m just nodding while we’re sitting here in audio, nodding. Okay. Go ahead. Continue with your brilliance. 

[00:24:15]Mariana Padilla: Well, and I guess just to continue on with that same theme is just being authentic and one thing that’s been driving me crazy lately.

[00:24:24] Specifically about Instagram, because they wanna compete with TikTok, They have been pushing up reel, right? So they want you to be making reel, reel content, get seen by a ton more people. But then what happens is because people know they need to be making reals, there’s like six sounds that gets saved and people use over and over and over and over and over, and over and over again.

[00:24:47] It drives me insane. It’s crappy content. I’m just gonna put it out there like there are times to use trending audio, but if you like six weeks, like to the party, people are gonna be so over that audio by the time they see the reel. That to me, like my immediate reaction is like, Nope, seen that.

[00:25:03] And then there’s like five videos in a row that all have the same sound. So it’s just not authentic. So just be, I think figuring out a way to be yourself on video. This is what I’m thinking about specifically right now. Video content. You don’t need to use the trending audio. I have never once danced on camera.

[00:25:20] It’s really just me talking about the things that like my clients ask me about all the time. So even there, just like what do your clients ask you about all the time? There are generally, like three to five consistent questions that people have when they’re coming into the sales funnel, when they’ve been working with you for a long time.

[00:25:36] Whatever those questions are, keep track of those FAQs and you can just make content around that. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. If you wanna throw a filter on there, great, but you don’t need to spend a ton of time using effects and using filters and all of those things, like for me, what matters and what my audience engages with most of those things, which is like tangible, helpful tips, right? Like being, just being myself and bringing like my wisdom to the table. You don’t need to do anything crazy.

[00:26:03]Kris Ward: Yeah, and I don’t enjoy the word being authentic, not picking on you. What I find about that is, well, nobody would show up to be inauthentic, so it’s like, oh, be authentic. But I think what you’re saying, which I think is correct is, first of all, I now, I mean, I’m a podcast junkie, so I haven’t heard music in years, so I now know the first two seconds to maybe a hundred current songs, and I don’t know who’s singing them more, what the next line is, but cause of social media, cuz I’m not listening to the songs offline.

[00:26:34] I’m listening to podcast. So, okay. So what I think you’re saying is, listen, stay true to who you are. Just because it’s almost like if you invited me to this party, I can’t then decide, okay, what is everybody wearing that party and show up in that outfit. So if I don’t wanna dance on camera, which I do not, I like to have a good time, I’m willing to dance, but I am not doing the middle of work day and pointing at words and this is the new thing, right?

[00:26:57] There’s gotta be another way. Right. So I think what you’re saying is, don’t succumb to what like high school, what everybody else is doing. Yes. Don’t succumb to peer pressure. Don’t succumb to, Oh, this is the new thing. And in order to your business not to go under, we must hop a one foot and play this same audio, right?Yes. So by being authentic is, be consistent in your character and just be who you are and it will work out. 

[00:27:24]Mariana Padilla: Yes, absolutely. And I think all it comes through when you’re uncomfortable doing what you’re doing and it’ll take, it takes time to show up comfortably on, on camera, but there are so many times when I’m seeing these videos of people and you can just tell they’re forcing themselves to do it. And as my 12 year old daughter likes to say, it’s super cringe. You can tell. 

[00:27:43]Kris Ward: Yes. Cringy. I’ve heard that it’s cringy. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That is a really good point because we do all get seduced in, okay, this is it. And then you think it’s the whole, which we always talk about all these things you hear online that are not true, the grinding it out.

[00:28:01] And I always say that’s just somebody making like a hero’s journey out of ill plan. Out of an ill plan journey, right? Mm-hmm. Similar to like, you’ll see these true stories on Netflix. It’s like, well, firstly what you’re gonna do is beat me up emotionally and get me all feeling sad, and then this guy or girl’s gonna crawl out of this hole.

[00:28:18] Well, that’s not fun, right? Yeah. So I think what happens is then we’re told, Well, if you really care about your business, then you come so far, why can’t you dance or hop on one foot to make a sale? Wouldn’t you do that for your business? So I think stop doing that. Be who you are. Show up, because actually you can tell me, but this is what I hear all the time. It’s a new day for social media and they just wanted to see you be you. 

[00:28:43]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, totally. Right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And you know, there, and I think, I’ve been following a lot of people at TikTok, and the people of the whose content I appreciate the most are literally just people who come up 30-60-90 seconds and they’re just talking about whatever it is, like it is just knowledge.

[00:29:00] Right. You know? And I just really appreciate that. I think there’s a whole new democratization of information out there as long as its correct, right. Like there’s a whole other two, but misinformation, we don’t go there. But I think, and they’re performing really well with millions of followers, so it can be done. It can be done. 

[00:29:15]Kris Ward: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. Okay. We’ve got a couple minutes left. What are some other things that you think, listen, there’s misnomers out there. We should really not be buying into.

[00:29:26]Mariana Padilla: Oh, so many things. I guess one, I mean, another thing too is just like really thinking about the different types of content that you were creating.

And I know as a business owner, people have different understandings of like what it takes to, what kinds of content needs to be created, right? You wanna have educational content, you wanna have entertaining content, you wanna have like testimonials, all of that kind of stuff. And that’s very, very important.

[00:29:53] But the other thing you have to think about is that each stage of the sales funnel, people need to see different kinds of content to keep moving down the sales funnel, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. And so social media, I tend to think is very top of the sales funnel. It’s great for brand awareness, helping people learn more about your brand, but at the same time, like you need to make sure that people who are in the middle of the sales funnel are being, or they’re seeing things that are interest to them so that they keep coming back for more.

[00:30:22] So I work with a lot of realtors and I think it’s just helpful to think about it from this lens, right? So if you are a new home buyer and you’re just thinking about purchasing a home, you need very different content. Different content’s going to be helpful for you than someone who is at the stage of closing on their very first home. Even though you are both first time home buyers. Right. Technically you’re the same. 

[00:30:46]Kris Ward: That’s a great example. That’s a good example. 

[00:30:48]Mariana Padilla: It’s completely different. Right. So you have to be able to be very in touch with your ideal client profile and then also how they move through the sales funnel and have a very, very deep understanding of pain points and psychographics at each of those stages and what they’re struggling with. So you can create that content that what they need to see. 

[00:31:07]Kris Ward: Yeah, that’s a really good example because when you say people at different stages of the cycle, you’re like, okay, so this client is seeing my staff for whatever is new, and this person to other potential clients. This other person’s now seen it for seven weeks, but

[00:31:21] you are, that’s a clear distinction. They’re both first time home buyers, but one is just now thinking about looking for a house and the other is ready to do the paperwork, right? Yes. There’s a big, there’s a big leap between that. What would appear to be two people in the same category or bucket. Mm-hmm.

[00:31:38] Yeah. Really that’s who… I don’t know if this is whole thing, and I don’t know if you’re gonna be able to help us. One of the things I find frustrating is I know there’s a lot of social media management programs out there, but I find that most of them, you plug all the stuff in and it’s gonna pop up in your phone, and then you’re gonna have to like, it’s inter… the way I work, it’s interruption.

[00:31:56] I just don’t believe in hopping in and out of activities. So we’ve tried it on a spreadsheet, but sometimes where you’re right, it’s like, I’d like to have some sort of plan that we know we put up testimonials once every couple weeks or whatever, but tracking what I’m putting out as far as posts and stuff, I find that a little tricky.

[00:32:13]Mariana Padilla: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the tool that I use is publer.io. Okay. They have a great free program so you can connect up to three accounts at a time and have up to 10 posts going for free. I pay for the paid version cause I have more than three accounts. But anyway, it’s great because they have a calendar view.

[00:32:35] See like what post got scheduled when, you can repost, and it’s just helpful to be able to know okay, you know in my brain, and I also have spreadsheets that kind of go along with this, but like Monday is testimonial day. Tuesday is we’re sharing a reel. Wednesday is I’m sharing an article or the link to my blog post.

[00:32:54] Like Thursday is I’m making sure that I’m promoting my league magnet. That’s another thing too, is also making sure that your social media is helping grow your email list. And we can also talk about that. Yeah. But having a basic like infrastructure and for me it’s like it is in my head, it’s also in a spreadsheet, but then I know I can go into publer, I can go look at those posts.

[00:33:13] I can, and then from there also just reuse some of that really performing content, and that’s another way to keep things manageable. I’ll typically repost as long as it’s evergreen and not time sensitive, after like three months, I’ll just repost it. Yeah. So you’re not like consistently recreating the wheel, making sure the copy is right, but easy to repost and reuse that content Also.

[00:33:33]Kris Ward: All right. Well I’ll check that out. Cause the other ones I’ve tried, it’s like, I mean, and even some of them, because they were video, that’s fine. But even if we just use one for posting written copy, it just really helps to see that. Cuz otherwise I don’t need this stuff popping up in my phone all day. That’s not how we…

[00:33:49]Mariana Padilla: Well, you can also schedule stories and reels now through publer. So you can do reel… 

[00:33:55]Kris Ward: But does it pop up in your phone and you have to. 

[00:33:56]Mariana Padilla: Nope. Auto publish. Nope. In the last two weeks, it was like you had to manually publish it for no reason other than Instagram wants to keep you on the platform.

[00:34:08] That’s the only reason because all the other platforms, you can schedule out TikToks for months in advance. Right? There’s no reason for it other than Instagram’s being stubborn. That’s it.

[00:34:17]Kris Ward:  See, I didn’t find that with TikTok either, because the ones I saw at TikTok, you could publish them, but you couldn’t put when you go to a load of the banner across like your videos in the feed, you’re at the bottom of your profile page, so you couldn’t change your little banner there to put the title.

[00:34:31] Like there was restrictions. So like, I might as well go on the platform. There’s no sense getting all this stuff out in the platform if I’m going to miss steps. Like I don’t get any. Getting more stuff out faster doesn’t count if it’s not the same qualities everybody else. So I found each social, but this does sound like it has a little bit more than the other ones cuz I found each one has had some sort of hoop you to jump through.

So anyhow, we’re getting specific here. All right. Excellent. Okay. I think you’ve been clear, but should people have been distracted by your great insights here, where can they find you?

[00:35:05]Mariana Padilla: Yes, absolutely. So on Instagram at Red Lab Marketing, R E D  L A B, marketing, easy way to remember it. It’s named after my two Red Fox Labrador, Walter, and Oh, okay.

[00:35:19] Yes. Named after my Dogos. And also redlabmarketing.com. And you can find my profile from my website, my LinkedIn profile, from my website as well. And I’m always on LinkedIn. I’ve been really enjoying LinkedIn lately. I dunno.

[00:35:36]  Oh good. Yeah, me too, me too. Okay. Thank you so much. We appreciate you and everyone else. We will see you in the next episode. END[00:35:44]