Author of The Golden Rules of Social Media Marketing and host of the Business, Jesus, Sweet Tea podcast, Heather Heuman helps companies and brands use the power of social media strategy the right way so they can scale their income, impact and influence. She calls South Carolina home, loves being a wife and mom, and loves to keep strategy simple so people can execute. Heather joins our show and provides a simple process for aligning social media with your business goals.
Connect with our guest, Heather, on their website and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Full Transcript Below:
[00:00:00] Jennifer: Hi, I’m Jennifer Mulchandani
[00:00:02] Heather Myklegard: and I’m Heather Myklegard.
[00:00:04] Jennifer: Welcome to the M Word,
[00:00:05] Heather Myklegard: where we have uncensored conversations on all things marketing.
Due to COVID. We are not recording in the studio and apologize for any poor audio or technical glitches. As soon as it is safe, we will have our guests with us in the studio until then stay healthy and wear a mask.
[00:00:28] Jennifer: Hello, and welcome to the M word. My name is Jennifer Mulchandani
[00:00:32] Heather Myklegard: and I’m Heather Myklegard.
[00:00:34] Jennifer: And today we’re talking to Heather Heuman with Sweet Tea Social Marketing. Heather is the author of the Golden Rules of Social Media Marketing, and host of the Business, Jesus, Sweet Tea Podcast. Heather helps companies and brands use the power of social media strategy the right way so they can scale their income impact and influence. Coming to us from South Carolina, Heather loves being a wife and mom and loves to keep strategy simple so people can execute welcome to our podcast, Heather.
[00:01:02] Heather Heuman: Hey, thank you so much, Jennifer and Heather, I’m excited to be here, hanging out with you ladies.
[00:01:07] Jennifer: Great. Well, we appreciate your time. We’d like to just start out and let you orient our listeners to you and your business to just give us that quick overview of what do you do in marketing and who are you working with?
[00:01:19] Heather Heuman: Yeah. Great question. So, you know, I would say our happy place and, where we love to geek out on relating to social media strategy is the strategy component, because so oftentimes people are busy doing all the things and all the tactics and all of the TikTok dances, but they actually have no idea what their actual strategy is.
And so the main thing we love to say is that your social media efforts should be aligned with what your business goals are. I love to focus on organic social media without having to feel that you have to have paid ads, relationships, and the power of video. And so we come alongside our clients, which sometimes are 6, 7, 8, 9 figure companies, and we’re actually more so just developing a strategy for them, or we’re actually helping teach up and train their in-house team.
All the way to the other end, where we have a program where we come alongside Christian CEOs and business owners that are maybe at that level of maybe three or less people on their team. And they want help, but they’re not in that position to be able to have a full blown marketing agency, helping them with social.
[00:02:29] Jennifer: That’s great. you said when we chatted before the show, and you shared information with us that you love marketing, obviously you’ve built your business around providing marketing, but what about it specifically, do you love?
[00:02:41] Heather Heuman: I mean, I have just seen personally in my life, social media and marketing opened doors that otherwise would never have even been possible. Like even Heather, like your co-host here. Like I met her through, I think maybe original a Facebook group. Which then led to a DM conversation, which then led to us both being at the same marketing conference in Chicago, and I adore and love Heather to pieces.
And so that being said, I didn’t just kind of show up in Google, how to make money at home. I have a background, 21 years ago, I actually worked for a digital marketing agency, so I saw the whole like project management, graphic design, web design side, but I am a connector. And so what I have found, over the years, as social media has become to be a thing, is that I love the power that social media marketing can truly allow for people and businesses to build connections, to give people a chance, to like know and trust you to feel comfortable pulling out their card to do business with you. I’ve seen that happen on my own or I’ve built two brands completely from scratch in totally different eras because we know the algorithm changes all the time.
So in 2011, I started my first company, and then in 2014 is when I started my Sweet Tea Social Marketing brand and I’ve just seen that when you’re willing to show up, and when you actually care about the human that’s on the other end of the tweet or the share, or the comment that really great things can happen. So what started out for me as a, Hey, I just want to make some money for our family to go on vacation has like transformed my life and been able to say, Hey, we could actually afford private school for our kids if we want to.
Or, oh, we could actually buy our dream home or make a donation to a child in need or help this family that wants to adopt. I’ve just really seen it honestly transformed my life. I’ve seen it make a huge impact for our clients. And I just want to amplify the message that people have to stop hiding, but you genuinely have to realize that this is marketing. To the point of y’all’s podcast, the word marketing isn’t a scary word. I just think for a lot of people, it’s not their zone of genius. And they ultimately feel timid and they just need to be told the right things to do and focus on.
[00:04:57] Heather Myklegard: Heather, it’s been so fun to watch your business grow. And as you said, we have been connected since 2014, and it’s so great to see you here today on the show.
I want to take it though, even a step further, you’ve niched down to a very particular audience and clients. And so I’d love for you to tell us about how you found that niche. And was it scary to maybe limit your possibilities of who you worked with and do you find that to be true?
[00:05:25] Heather Heuman: Okay. So I love this question and it’s super fun. So when I did start my Sweet Tea Social Marketing brand in 2014, I laugh because I probably still have a copy of that original business card, but the first business card says I helped small and medium sized businesses, nonprofits, and churches. And I was like, I want to help everybody. And I genuinely wanted to, but personally, like as a Christian. I just felt that God was calling me to focus on Christians. It wasn’t necessarily like this marketing manipulative tactic.
But separate from that, I still was struggling because internally it was like, I want to help everybody. But as a marketer, it was very hard. You’re talking about return on your investment and lead gen and you’re like having a presentation to a church. That’s not necessarily the same language that you would maybe use, even though I know that social media marketing could help them. I’m an analytical thinker, I’m an Enneagram eight, so I just sat down and got it all on paper. And I was like, well, if I look at my clients, I look at the people who’ve paid me, 90% of everyone who I have helped. They are a business owner, they’re not necessarily the nonprofit or the church.
So I just in 2015. Um, mid 2015, I just made the decision to say, you know what? I help Christian CEOs and business owners that want to be able to use social media, advance their online brand to be able to have a bigger impact. And I just felt it, it freed me up mentally of not always feeling like I’m walking on this line of trying to dance between the language that sounds appropriate for a church versus a business.
What has happened is one, I think it’s helped me stand out. So, when people are at a barbecue and they’re talking to someone and maybe that person is a Christian, or maybe it is a church, like I come to mind and they say, you need to know Heather because she works with the Christian brands. And so what I have found is it’s helped elevate more I would say, referrals that come to me. I’ve made it easier for people to go, this is something that Heather is passionate about; but, I’ve also found that the churches and the non-profits, still ended up coming my way, as well as, brands that would not necessarily in any way identify as Christian.
But when they do talk to me and work with me, they’re like, Hey, just so you know, like I’m Jewish or just want you to know that like our faith is not in any way, a part of our brand. And I’ve had multiple clients where they sell pet shampoo and they’re cool people, and I know that I can help them and they’ve gone on to be like a fantastic client.
So it’s not like, I’m like, “oh, I’m sorry, you don’t have that Christian box. I won’t help you.” But it’s more so they see who I am, they see my website, they’d see my podcast. And I think it allows them to almost, even better be able to self-select and say like, “is she a good fit for us?” And I feel like it’s just ultimately helped overall.
[00:08:20] Jennifer: You’re talking about it through the lens of your own faith,
[00:08:23] Heather Heuman: Sure.
[00:08:24] Jennifer: that it’s relatable-ness to your target audience, because there’s a shared understanding of your values, so as you say, it’s like you have your marketing tactics and you may not even be talking about the religion or, the fact that faith is there or is not there, but it’s like this underpinning of how you’re going to market. You know, how do the values come into that?
[00:08:47] Heather Heuman: That’s a great question. To me, it’s that I feel like I want to serve and come alongside people that have a Christian worldview, just because, I mean, again, no judgment about someone who may think differently about things, but at the end of the day, if I’m helping amplify the voice and the brand and the business of someone, I feel that we’re going to be better able to do that if we’re really just showing up to life from a similar lens on our value system.
I could tell you that on a leadership level, I feel that it allows us to partner in market and just really be in their voice more authentically. My philosophy is if you’re a Christian, even if it’s not in any way, a part of your marketing, that means you should be like doing your business with excellence and having the best, upright integrity and that your value system is absolutely amplifying how you’re doing business, even if you’re not like posting Bible verses.
So it’s like at the end of the day, I want people to see their faith by the actions and the way that they’re truly showing up in their business. Not just with a special quote.
[00:09:57] Heather Myklegard: I like that. And I think it just shows your transparency as a business owner and it you know, allows them to put faith in you and whatever that faith might look like for them.
Heather, I want to go back to, you mentioned organic social media. A lot of people say organic’s dead , you know, the algorithm, this, that. Talk to me about your tactics for organic social for your clients. And why do you think it’s still an effective way to market?
[00:10:24] Heather Heuman: I think that that’s a great question. So one of the biggest differences in the landscape overall, not platform specific, is that it has become harder to amplify and build and grow our audiences. From a social standpoint, I want people to know that when you realize that there are human beings on the other side, and you’re not just selling or you’re not just thinking as that particular person as a lead that I know organic social is not dead because a it’s working for me. It’s working for our clients. We’re seeing posts get 50 and 70 comments within 24 hours on very small pages. They are not doing paid advertising, but they’re really honing in on exactly who they want as their customer.
They’re not playing these follow for follow games and all these pods, because at the end of the day, it’s so easy to get sucked into this vanity metrics game, which I’m also a believer. So it doesn’t sound like I’m talking out both sides of my mouth. There is something to say for social proof legitimizes your credibility, like you didn’t just start business an hour ago because you have three followers.
But at the same time, I can tell you I’ve done work for pages where I’m coming in, they’re a tourism agency. Someone else quote, “helped them get to 81,000 followers.” and on the back end, I’m like, “do you know that only 2000 of these 81,000 A: speak English and B: live within a 90 mile radius of your local brand in your small town?”
So I’m like, this might make you feel good on some level, but that makes your engagement just terrible. None of those people are viable prospects. And so I always just encourage people just to say, organic is not dead. And I personally focus on strategies that are strong on building relationships, not spamming people and really talking to your audience in a real human way. If you want to have viral content, it’s probably not going to necessarily just be you in a selfie looking fabulous on the beach, but it also may not be related to your physical product. It could be something that literally educates entertains, make somebody laugh or inspires them and makes them want to say, “oh, this is hilarious. I’m going to share this.”
The way that the quote “algorithms” all work is the more that the platform see that your content on your pages is getting traction, your next post is going to be seen by more people. When that next post is about your free five day social media training, you need more eyeballs, more people are going to be able to see it. It’s this philosophy of you know, social media is a marathon. It’s a long-term marketing game and it’s not necessarily just about the latest, you know,Tik-Tok dance.
[00:13:16] Jennifer: That’s great advice because I think so often clients are like, “well, I posted on social. Why didn’t I see myself?” You know, it’s what, you just communicated that it’s about building community and it’s a long game. It is not deal of the day and get a lot of bang for it.
That’s great and as you were talking about the difference between numbers that matter and the fake vanity numbers that maybe prop up an ego, it made me think of the story that you shared with us about your own, marketing challenge learning experience in 2014. And you shared about, trying to implement some tactics that worked for an organization that had an insanely large list and how that isn’t going to work for a small organization. Can you tell us a little bit more about that experience and what you, what you took away from it?
[00:14:08] Heather Heuman: Yeah. I mean, it’s like, it’s so easy to want to get, I don’t want to say sucked into, as in they’re manipulating you, but the reality is, I believe, that there are a lot of people that there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. There’s a lot of, um, untruths in what really works. I think that I fell into this pattern of being like, “oh, okay, I get this, I’m going to do this!” and I was going to all this effort and trying to build these funnels and do all of this stuff on the backend. I don’t love technology, so for anybody who’s like, “I can’t make social work because I’m not a tech person.” Not true!
You know? I was trying to implement what someone else who did have a list with 400,000 people. So yes, when they send that out and they have like a $29 offer and they have a 4% conversion rate, that sounds like that might be some cash in the bank to maybe even pay for their advertising. That they were training us to say, “Hey, put this much money in Facebook ads and get this, and this is going to pay for this.”
It’s like, if you really go, oh, well, the math of it is I have 2000 subscribers to my email list and I got a 2% conversion of a $29 product. Oh, wait, that’s not going to get me to my six figures well, like, they’re all saying it’s going to. And so I’m actually doing a session today for some clients where, you know, my expertise isn’t necessarily sales, but I was like, so many of you want social media to be this magic pill for your $6 earrings and you want to have this 5, 6, 7 figure brand.
And you’ve posted on social media seven times. And you’re like, where’s my, like, where’s my vacation in like Los Cabos. And I’m just like, That sounds fun. I like Los Cabos good place. But at the end of the day, if someone tells you and they’re real with you, and they say someone who doesn’t know, you probably needs to see your content anywhere from 10 to 14 times, maybe even before they get to the place to just click on your free training or to just even engage with you. I think there’s this disconnect that people wrongfully think social media in two posts is going to get them to buy your $5,000 product. And so I’m just like, there’s a disconnect of what’s reality versus the work that’s involved and just like a farmer, isn’t going to walk out to his crop of the land that he just bought because he bought the land and he just shows up in October and he’s like, “where’s the corn?”
So it’s like to direct that to our businesses and our CEO’s that are like the running quote, “social media to work.” And I’m like, well, when have you posted, what value are you giving? What offers do you actually even have that you’re amplifying? And they’re like, “oh, I’ve had none of that.”. But they’re waiting for their corn, right?
They’re waiting for their sales and I’m just like, you’ve got to do the work. So I’m all about like, here’s what you can do to save your time. But here’s not what I’m about is saying, oh, you need to invest no time. Put out no good content, not be credible. And then just because you got the Instagram account and you used seven hashtags, eight weeks ago, that’s not going to get you what you, you think you want.
So I’m more of like a realist, not like I’m trying to like discourage people, but I’m like, I want you to say, “I’ve got two hours a week. How can I be effective in my marketing?” I’m not here to say, “you know what? In five minutes, a month, you are going to make six figures with social” because that’s just untrue.
[00:17:39] Heather Myklegard: Heather in the beginning, you talked about another tactic that you really appreciate, which is video. How do you get, and have you found that clients are maybe hesitant to, to start video or, or scared? And how do you get them out of that comfort zone to try it? What are your tactics there?
[00:17:58] Heather Heuman: You know, I think at the end of the day, I just let people know it’s a mindset thing. So it’s like if you’re waiting to lose 10 pounds or you don’t think you’re pretty enough, or you don’t think that you are articulate enough, you know, at the end of the day, those 10 pounds, aren’t going to make or break whether someone does business with you. And so again, this may not be the approach for everybody, but I’m just like, it’s not going to kill you.
Your first video is going to be terrible. And the more you do it, the better you’re going to get. So I personally, even today, I personally have a philosophy of focus on short video content that’s related to something that can really just give someone one tip. So I’m not asking you to like get stressed out and get so anxious in your head about like yourself, stop focusing on you, make it be about your audience.
Say what are five questions I get asked over and over and over again that I know, like the back of my hand, what the answer to that is and turn that into five separate videos. And so I’d say the three tips I tell people is one: get over yourself, two: look into the camera and have good audio and just act like you’re talking to like a real human, don’t sit there and act and just pretend that you’re having like a real conversation with a real person and you start out with what they need.
So don’t do 45 seconds of like, this is about me. Just literally say, Hey guys, today, I’m going to share with you the number one thing you can do to your Instagram bio to get more people to engage with you. And then I might say, I’m Heather, I’m in South Carolina with Sweet Tea Social Marketing, and I help, you know, blah, blah, blah.
But then I just give them the tip and I give them what they want. And then I say, you know, give us a follow if this has served you, if this has helped you or, you know, click the link in our bio, if you want X, Y, and Z. But, make it short, make it simply be you answering a question that your audience needs and just make yourself do it.
And you will get better. Your 15th video is going to be so much better. And then the final thing I would say for someone who’s like, “I’m not tech savvy is.” You can do this and just grab the phone that you have that has like a remarkably great camera on it. There’s like a 95% chance of everybody listening right now ,you’ve got a fantastic phone that has a great camera that can record you with good audio and just make sure you know where the camera is and you’re making eye contact and just do it. And then a quick little tip. If you are recording on your phone to minimize your stress of going this video, won’t upload, it’s a 17 minute video. That’s why I really encourage people. Keep those videos nice, tight, shorter than three minutes. One, it won’t take up a million, you know, things of space on your phone, but two, if you just keep it tight and short, it’s easily able to be uploaded to your social media accounts. So that’s just kind of like my quick little video rant.
[00:21:05] Jennifer: That’s great. And I love the tips. I might share some of those too. I want to talk a little bit about, specifically creating communication options for social media that are helping to communicate the going back to sort of client values, client, good work, you know, kind of who they are at the core of their business or, or the humans who are running it.
How do you convince your clients? Or maybe they’re very open to it to, to share the things that are personal to the company or to the leadership or their values or their community good work. I mean, we, we talk about cause marketing as a method or a strategy, but often, clients that I think you’re working with it’s, it’s part of their DNA. And so how do you craft messaging that is authentic, but doesn’t feel, “look at us, we’re doing all this great stuff”, because it seems that that’s an important part of your work.
[00:22:02] Heather Heuman: Yeah. And in exactly the way you just worded that, Jennifer is what I oftentimes hear. I don’t want to say necessarily as pushback, but as in hesitation, because to many of our clients, they hear maybe what I’m trying to suggest them to do and they interpret it as oh, Heather just told me to like, brag about myself or Heather just told me to like, Talk more about like why I do what I do. And they internalize that as like, this is me putting the focus on me, but I always just look at everything from like a marketing lens. So it’s like, you’ve got 10 accountants, 10 accountants that all have the same certification.
They all went to the same college. They all even let’s just say have the exact same $3,000 offering to work with them. So at the end of the day, we all know that we aren’t the only people that do what we do. So the only thing that really can differentiate you as a viable choice that they want to go with is almost how you position the you part or the culture of your company into your messaging.
Because if you’re just going to talk about saying, you know, “taxes are due on this day, or the taxes have been extended to this day due to the COVID pandemic, blah, blah, blah.” Well, that information probably is helpful, but that ultimately doesn’t differentiate yourself. So I like to encourage our clients and people to really say like, you know, why is it that you do what you do?
Because I believe sometimes the why we’re not just chasing, you know, the dollar bills, but we’re doing this because it fuels us or it makes different. Um, you know, one of my clients has she bought a flower truck. She’s got a flower boutique company in Wildwood, Missouri, and she wrote a book about it’s called, Xenia Flowers, but her whole love of flowers and everything that she’s doing is from her own relationship with her grandmother who taught her how to garden as a kid.
And so she’s got this book and she sells the book when she’s out and about at her event. And it might maybe sound cheesy like, okay, she started a flower company because she had a grandma that taught her about flowers, but that’s true. And that’s her story. And that’s the reason that she’s actually just quit her full-time job to pursue this full time.
And so that story, if she never communicated that. It, you wouldn’t know it, you would just be like, okay, maybe she just thought, you know, Flowers are trending right now, or this is something to do because people are outside right now. Let me just kind of like chase, like the marketing tactics, but instead she’s embraced her story. She’s elevated it and it’s helping differentiate her at the farmer’s markets. It’s helping people feel more connected with her. And we all know this. I know that y’all know this, but people spend money and people buy from people they like they know and they trust. So if we’re willing to go, if I’m talking about myself or even if I’m celebrating another client, that’s not you going look at me.
I just got a $10,000 contract. Even though that might be true. I look at it as a marketer and say, when you share that you just brought on a $10,000 client who is from the British Virgin islands, and they have been following you for six months and they’re getting X, Y, and Z results. I think you might be sharing that story that’s helping all the future clients feel more comfortable to spend money with you. That’s validating that you are legitimate, it’s giving you credibility. So I think it’s really a mindset shift, Jennifer, that when we talk about ourselves or we talk about our story, or we say, one of the reasons why I think this and the entire culture of whatever your business is, might be going down a completely different road, here’s why I think that.
[00:25:53] Heather Myklegard: Yeah, I think it’s some, it’s easier for people to start a relationship or a conversation with a real person rather than a logo. So come out behind your logo, how they’re, what have you seen on social media that you have found cringe-worthy or just makes you like, oh, I wish they wouldn’t do that.
[00:26:11] Heather Heuman: Oh my goodness. Okay. So this is an interesting question. I am a huge advocate again, of building relationships and I levered and use the direct messages to continue conversations that may have started online. I laughed, I laughed. I was like, Wayne, this must be working because it annoys me so much that I’m sitting here talking to you about it before we go to bed.
I got this message last night on Instagram. That was like, “Hey, I thought you might be interested in our page about, you know, pelvic activation and like something else.” And I was just, I was like, Wayne, this is my husband, everybody. I was like, Maybe the bigger version of me is just to be like to ignore that and block them and delete it.
And I normally do, but I said, I’ve got to write this lady back. So I wrote back, but I was like, “what on earth made you think I’m interested in your pelvic page? Like seriously, I’m so curious or is this the worst marketing I’ve ever seen question mark.” So sometimes like those things get me, so it’s really people not realizing that I’m a real human and if your strategy is that you would walk up to me and say that a random stranger at a marketing thing well go about you, do you, and it probably might work on some percentage of the population.
But overall to me, it is cringe-worthy to not know me, not have any relationship with me and then the same, you know, that was just an example of like a short thing that drove me crazy. But if you’re sending 17 mile long DMS, and in that same email, you’re asking me to be your client. You’re sending me your opt-in to come join your Facebook group. Like I just am like block and delete. And that’s just one more person that I, I currently don’t need to have any more conversations with.
I just am not a fan of that. And someone else just putting this out there, you know, since this is an uncensored conversation, someone else who I know is wildly successful in business, and her huge focus is sales. She says, “well, people do Facebook advertising all the time and they choose demographics of people and they, you know, say this is who I’m targeting and they pay money and they put their message out there.”
I just think that there’s a way to craft a story, to reach out to someone. And there’s something that’s more personal about the DM to one person that there’s a better way to cultivate a connection other than just going in for a hard immediate sell when you don’t know me and there’s no context at all for why you’re choosing me with your sales tactic. Yeah.
[00:29:08] Jennifer: And it’s like, it’s part of it’s respect, right? It’s it’s taking your time, it’s your inbox. And I see that it’s the same as spammy email. It’s like, if you didn’t ask for this connection, you didn’t invite a DM or you didn’t start an actual relationship somewhere else online, then marketing that just presumes that, you’re going to look at my stuff is it’s in my book its rude. And I think the difference between what you’re describing and the paid advertising is I could choose to ignore the paid advertising. And, and I fully expect it in my feeds, right? Like we’ve been taught if we’re going to use this platform, we’re going to get advertising in these places. But we also it’s like boundaries.
And I think companies that are trying to just throw everything at the wall is they’re not respecting people’s boundaries. And I think to your point that. That’s no way to begin a relationship. You know, when someone’s been spammed into submission, “fine, I’ll look at your stuff.” Like, is that really what you want to have happen?
[00:30:11] Heather Heuman: Exactly. And I mean, personally, Yeah, we have to be adaptive in the world of marketing and things are constantly changing. And I’m not here to say that the things don’t work because oftentimes when people try things or they try text marketing or they try messenger bots, oftentimes they’re doing because someone else is telling them that they had a 77% conversion rate in like it’s working for someone and they’re like, I want something working in my business so I’m going to try it.
Personally, I am going a little bit more in the opposite direction. I love social media. Again, I have paying clients, people I never would have met otherwise, so I’m so grateful to social media marketing. But I am taking it an approach of there are so many people trying to automate everything, that when you are a brand or a business that has like a real person that’s sending a real voice memo, or you are letting people know, here’s my email address, I’m going to email you back.
It is not some random person in my office that doesn’t know you, that when we can add more credible, reliable, trustworthy human connection into our marketing strategy, I feel that it can elevate your brand and really help you stand out. It’s almost like when everyone else zigs you zag. And that’s kind of like my personal approach to like doing marketing well, to try to stand out in our current market.
And there, are there any marketers that you follow or look up to any resources you would recommend podcasts books for others to, um, take a look and learn from?
Yes. So I highly respect Mark Schaefer, is one of the, kind of like a marketing business minds that I really, really respect. I’d say a lot of the people I love to focus on are people that have a legitimate business implementing what they’re teaching and not just people that are super popular on stages at marketing conferences.
And so I’m not leaving other names out, but I’m just saying people that are literally in not necessarily that they’re in the weeds, but that they’re actually getting clients. They’ve not just mastered like marketing to people. Um, particular message. If that makes sense. Um, I, you know, I read a book called The Golden Rules of Social Media Marketing.
And so I have the focus of my book where I didn’t want it to be outdated five minutes after I wrote it because we all know social changes like this. And so I am a huge believer of really have good, solid strategy about how people like to engage and be engaged by. But I’d say Mark Schaefer and Kelly Roach are really just two people that I’d say are very strong from a business perspective. And then they have a lot of really great content that’s directly angled within the marketing space.
[00:33:10] Jennifer: Those are great resources, and I look forward to reading your book too, Heather. So just to leave on a note of reflection, if you will, if you, um, could go back to when you started building your own brand, whether this one or the prior brand, what advice would you give yourself in terms of marketing?
[00:33:30] Heather Heuman: You know, I think that sometimes, and this is how I am, I’m wired that I’m like, show me an example of what works and then I want to tweak it to be my own. And I think if I went back. I, I don’t think I necessarily made any mistakes regarding what I just said, but I think sometimes in my earlier days I got a little lost in Heather and I was almost maybe trying to be like a mini version of the person that I saw that was having success.
So what I think I would say to like, either an earlier version of myself, if I could turn back time or if I could maybe just give a message to your audience, that would be really good. What are the three differentiators about someone doing business with us? What is that, are you incorporating those three things into your social media marketing strategies consistently?
So that, that message is something that you are consistently communicating that not only your current audience is like reminded having you top of mind, like you are the go-to on this, whether it’s a product or service or a program, but also that you are knowing that exactly who you are, how you show up, or even just with the culture of what your organization is, has to be consistently put out there, because otherwise I feel like you just kind of start to blend in with everybody else and we all know that there’s so much noise. There are so many distractions. So really just try to amplify more of really what differentiates you and have that be, not just something you post in your about section or it’s in the headline of your LinkedIn profile, but you’re consistently elevating those points in those messages.
[00:35:28] Heather Myklegard: So Heather, if our listeners want to connect with you and learn more about Sweet Tea Social Media, where can they find you?
[00:35:35] Heather Heuman: So, yeah. So my last name is super weird. So it’s Heather Heuman, but it’s spelled H E U M A N. And on LinkedIn, on Twitter and on Instagram, you can follow us just simply by my first and last name altogether, but our company website is SweetTeaSocialMarketing.com, and that’s where you can find access to our book and our podcasts and our programs.
[00:36:00] Jennifer: Oh, that’s terrific. I want to thank you again, Heather, for joining us today, it’s been a fun conversation and I hope our listeners have found it helpful as well. We’ve been talking to Heather Heuman from Sweet Tea Social Marketing, and we look forward to our next conversation.
[00:36:18] Heather Myklegard: We were guests on Business, Jesus and Sweet Tea Podcast episode 213 with Heather Heuman. Take a listen.
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