275: What is happening in the world of content marketing (for small business owners) | Mitch + Mariah

There is a LOT going on in this online marketing space. 

So let’s talk about it. 

Content Queen Mariah team - Mariah and Mitch are chatting about 3 interesting things we are seeing online (or ideas for you to try as a small business). 

Have more ideas or things you are seeing? Share them with us! 

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GET YOUR AUDIO GUIDE AND LEARN CONTENT STRATEGY⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ 3 things as content marketers we are seeing online 

✨ How to stand out in the noise of content

✨ Outside the box content ideas 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 275. And I've got a special guest with me today, and we are talking about some things that we're seeing in the content marketing space right now and marketing in general. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur storyteller, digital nomad, creative content bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen.

I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content, and market your business with strategy through the channels that work for you. Each week I'll deliver a story to help you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing. Business and content creation. I'll also be joined by amazing souls and entrepreneurs who are here to share their own journey, along with actual steps, help you take your business to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful and marketing and content strategy.

Let's do it. Hello gang. Hello, Mitch. Hello. So yes, we have a special guest and if you see the video on social media, our microphone is also quite special. So say hello to social media. Santi Santiago. Rero Martinez. Yes. So he's our sloth, our heat pack sloth that we have brought with us. So basically a little bit of an update.

We are in our bus, so we bought a 2013 Toyota coaster. Yeah, we are currently in the process of traveling in it. And are we renovating it? We'd like to. Is that happening right now? Absolutely not. So we put a bed base in and yeah, if you follow us on socials, you'll see what it looks like. It's a palace. Yeah.

Perfect for us. So anyway, in the mix of getting organized to leave, uh, Mitch and I have been doing these Friday. Well, we've done one brainstorming sessions and we're talking about a few things and we thought, why not turn it into a podcast? So, yes, we have three things and we're gonna keep this short, sharp to the point.

'cause it, there's a lot of things happening in marketing AI's. Oh yes, I, I remember Facebook. Yes. Yeah, that's the first one. So the first thing we're gonna talk about is, uh, meta, obviously they've come out and said. You don't need a social media, uh, not a social media. Sorry. You don't need an Ads Manager anymore.

We are gonna do it all in house. All you have to do is basically give us your website and we will create the ads. We will create everything for you and optimize it for your audience. Sounds great in theory, right? Like, cool, Facebook is just gonna do it all for us. You don't have to hire an ads manager or, cool.

I don't have to learn it myself. Obviously we don't. Offer. We are content marketing agency. We don't offer ads. But, um, this was interesting to me because the point of an ad now on social media, you need the context, but basically meta are going to have AI bots do your ads. Yes, that's it. That's all we need to know.

Right? He's got a name for it, whatever. Cool. Yes. What my concern is. Is the right now on social media, people are scrolling past ads left, right, and center. Right. So there's a few things with this. The first one is, well, ads actually that perform well in my experience, look native to the platform. So they look like organic content.

Mm-hmm. So if you get AI to run them and it's gonna take a while to perfect it, I feel. But anyway, he, maybe he's already done it. You gotta tell it's an ad, so we're just gonna start scrolling past them. In my opinion. Then what's gonna happen is everyone's now gonna go, oh, cool. I can now afford to do ads.

Yeah, awesome. Facebook's telling me if I can spend 10, 15, $20 a day, I don't have to pay for an ads manager and I don't have to pay for a course alert myself, and I don't even have to do it. Then we're gonna be filled with ads and people are just gonna leave the platform because it's full of ads. Yes.

Well, I imagine it's good for the e-commerce and pro products that you want to sell because in then all of that business, one is sell my product and yeah, get my money. You don't need a person. Yeah. AI can actually create pretty good product images. If they've got a photo of the product. But I think, uh, brands and entrepreneurs and a small business that want to grow up, uh, exponential.

Can I say it like, uh, yes. Yeah. Exponentially. Exponentially. And in a, in a vision with a 10 years, 20 years? Yes. Sustainability. The business, I don't think so because you're going to get it to one A that is very generic and also. Yeah. Like for example, you get into Facebook and see one ad mm-hmm. That knows your brand and you don't feel identified with that.

Yeah. You're going to say, I don't like that. Mm-hmm. Even if sell something. Yes. Mm-hmm. But it's as well what kind of audience you are, you are reach, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, yes, my thought. So if anyone's listening, what should you do? I think, um, the important thing right now in ai with content, with marketing, learn it.

'cause you'd be silly not to. Mm-hmm. But always keep it with a human lens because just like a lot of things, we get bored. We get bored. That's why things like AI exist. Mm-hmm. So if you. You jump on the chat GPT bandwagon and start creating really generic AI content, you're just gonna start looking like everyone else.

If you learn AI in a really smart way to maximize your time, and you spend more time building relationships and audience, and make your content as human as possible, then you will stand out. But it's important to diversify your content marketing strategy because. If you are just relying on Instagram and Meta and then they bring out this new ads thing, and then our whole news feeds are filled with ads and we decide to go somewhere else, you also have to pick up those people with.

It doesn't mean you have to jump on another social media platform either. If build your mailing list asap, yes, you have to build something that is yours because if you go to social media, Facebook, they're not yours. Instagram in, then the products is you. Yes. Mm-hmm. When, when you get into one app that is free, you are the product.

Mm. And also, I think that if you are a user of Facebook or Instagram and it's full of ads is lost, then naturally of each platform. Yes. Because the naturally is be social mm-hmm. Is people get and show the pictures and the entertainment, but if you going to get in and see a lot of ads, they, you start to leave.

Yes. So, yes. I, I, I think it's good. Like, I start to think in my list, in my marketing Mm. What, what you say in my list. Mailing list. Yeah. My list and yeah. Something that is your channel, your own. Mm. You you really own. Mm. Podcast blogs. Podcast. How well do we own anything these days? Ever? No. Yes I do. We change a lot, but yes.

You have to learn and keep updating. Mm-hmm. Yes. So that's that I ai. But we could go into, okay, well what are people resonating with? And there is something that we tried with a client recently. And this is real human content that you could not generate by ai. It's impossible. Well, it's probably possible.

But anyway, we went up to Bribe Island in Queensland where we have a client Savage, a seafood. I'll pop their case study in the show notes if you want to check out sort of what we did with them. But we, they were celebrating 20 years in business, so we decided to go there and film like a docuseries. And I had a bit of a vision, like I was gonna be like, I guess the host of the documentary, like, and then we would film a part series to post on TikTok.

Mm-hmm. And Facebook and Instagram to, yeah, document. This business is like, so basically it's not just a fish and chip shop, your average fish and chip shop. It is one that they catch their own staff, they source produce. It's also got a seafood market. It's delicious and they are really experts in what they do.

They, they really have a good story and a good story because it's a family. Yes. And it's long time. And also because all of that they sell is local. Mm. And also people that work there is local. Mm. And people that is provide all of the seafood are local. Mm. So they are, they have a really good story. Yeah.

And they, oh, like their business is not even ran digitally. Right. That the own, like the only digital stuff is I guess this online presence and. That's what made it so special, I think. So we filmed this series and Mitch edited it and it's now on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Mm. And they, so what we did is we learn their point of difference from their con, their competitors, family owned, lots of experience locally sourced produce.

The whole ecosystem of that business was very interesting. Hmm. And we sold that in a way of content and it went really well. Right? Like, I mean, I don't have the stats on me right now, but across Facebook, I think in total, at least every video reached 5,000 plus. I think the first one reached 13 to 15,000 people.

Heaps of comments of locals and people that have been there and experienced it, sharing their experience. Yeah. Um, same on TikTok. You know, at least each one. The first video is about 11,000 and the rest were over a thousand each, and that was like, okay, this is the type of content that people are looking for.

Yes, resonate also. Not just external mm-hmm. To the clients, if not internal as a, as a business. Mm-hmm. People that work in there when see that that campaign, they feel so proud Yeah. To be part of. Yeah. And also they going to say, ah, look what they are doing. And they show us and be part of our group.

Mm-hmm. So they really going to be more loyalty with the business. Yeah. That in the end is a win for the the owners or the Yes. Yeah. And people actually commented as well, like, are you hiring? Uh, yes. People that want to work there. Yeah. And so this is what you, we wanna see online is what makes your business special.

Now, obviously we need to make content that is about our audience. But this style is really about storytelling. So things like docuseries TV series, this is really popular on TikTok. Mm-hmm. And now we're seeing it come over to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, but that's also something that can be long form video on YouTube or like, it can be broken up into so many different types of content.

So Mitch did a one big episode, which was like 10 minutes, and then broke it up into. Five episodes, five episodes, and we could spread it across those social media platforms and it resonated. And now we have like long form content as well. So this is something interesting that if you think, oh, I could do something like this.

Try this like TV series style, docuseries style. You don't have to have like a highly professional team to do it. Just a camera. Obviously someone needs to interview you. We did very organic with our hands. How we Yeah. Very artisan. How you call like, uh, yeah. Outta his hands, like, yeah. Very homemade.

Homemade, yeah. Yeah. Like, and it, you just gotta be mindful though that it's just not all about you, you, you, and like how it, so what we wanted to shed light on is the team, how it impacts the community. Like all the things. So you do have to think about it from the lens of, okay, like, oh, I'm this person.

I've got these things to share. But trying to make it in a way that also relates back to the audience, I think is important too. Yeah. Yeah. So docuseries TV series, like people are even doing like reality style stuff on social media. It's interesting. And just an idea that we had and we're like, let's try it and see if it worked.

And we, we loved it and I think it's something we would like to do more of with other clients in the future. Yes. I think that kind of content and it's organic. Mm, totally organic. Mm. We, we didn't need actually with the restaurant, and we don't need to put ads in there. No. No, not at all. No, no. All organic.

Um, so then the third thing, 'cause we're keeping this short, we're keeping it real. We've also got things to do a lot of things because now living in the bus, there's like, this place is a mess. So it's funny. And this, so going back to the meta thing about like the ads. Robot, whatever it's called. What is it called?

I don't even know. I have their name. Anyway, it's fine. Um, platforms always go around in cycles, so we're all on this AI bandwagon now on social media. We, yeah, guys definitely here to stay. Ain't gone anywhere, but like, it'll shift so much. And then you'll start to go back to like how things were, right? Yes.

And. This got me thinking about Instagram and how Instagram was originally created as a place that we would share photos. Yes. And you said this to me, you're like, well, when I first started on Instagram as a person mm-hmm. It was like a photo album. Yeah. Uh yes. The the family album that you have all of the pictures.

Yeah. Yes. So that you remember if you know, you go back, you look at them, you share 'em with friends and family. A lot of But di But in digital. Yeah, in digital. Yeah. Like a digital photo album. Exactly. And then that is the natural of the Instagram. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's why it was created. Right. Exactly.

Then obviously business started leveraging it, promoting thinking for way how they could sell on this platform. Mm-hmm. But now what I'm sort of seeing with Instagram is, yeah, they're like, how big business owners, you've got ads you've got, but a lot of the features that they're bringing out are for the.

A personal user, in my opinion. Yeah. I mean, they've just brought out edits, which is like a video editing, kind of like cap cut, but these like shared feeds and all of these things that can support that type of creating, sharing stuff with friends and family, which goes back to the root of what Instagram was about.

So then it got me thinking about, well. If you're a business owner and you don't necessarily have to show up on social media to sell all the time, because social media is that top of funnel. It's just about getting people to see your brand. Yeah. How could we use the actual purpose of Instagram with that lens?

So how could we go, oh, well maybe I use it as my brand's photo album. Obviously you could add video now and all sorts of things, but if you are a business, it's like, well, I don't really selling on this, so like I've kind of got that kind of selling funnel in other spaces. I just want to use this place to connect.

Why don't just you try and use it like a personal Instagram? I'm not saying you should like post, I don't know, whatever like your kids or things like that, but like. Showing it as this really raw place to just share with your followers and your audience and potential customers, your brand from that lens,

for example. Well, I don't know. You're a solo entrepreneur like me. You know, I go, well, do I need to educate people on content all the time? Yes or no? I don't know. Just a hypothetical, well, why don't I, or my personal brand, right. Why don't I just use it as like photo dump places, places to dump photos, places to share my videos, but from the lens of creating connection, not trying to get them to do anything.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, I don't know, a carousel of what I did in my day, which involved, you know, series of things in my business. And just sharing from that lens of like, I'm a business owner and this is what I've been doing. Yes. If you, for example, my grandmother has a lot of al pictures. Yes. And we bring friends, I, I bring you to show and you are also entertainment and say, I look when you watch one picture, your father when he was young, looks so young.

Yes. So I imagine if one person going to get into one profile of you, you have. To make all of your content that people get that reaction. Mm-hmm. Yes. How to oppose different that take emotions. Yes. Obviously, you have to think different. Yeah. Know now that you score and sell in promotion. No. And also something that I told you before is, eh.

Everyone is doing you, you get into Instagram or or what TikTok Instagram most and you start to see the copy of the copy. Of the copy. Of the copy. Yes. And no one's write because it's the same thing. Mm-hmm. Yes. It's how you can see different, how you can make different, so I don't know, it could have legs, something you might go, I still don't understand what she's talking about, but.

You could use it as a place of more like a curation of what your brand is about without the need to educate or to sell to someone. It could just be a place where people can get to know the brand for behind the scenes. For that, if you were to go into their house and look at their photo album or their memories, or their camera roll the camera roll on their phone.

Yeah, where, where the photos aren't perfect and they're maybe blurry or, I don't know. I don't know. I think anyone listening, give it a shot. It's bold. Yeah. Like, 'cause you're not, I know a lot of people think, oh, if I'm not selling something and, and you could use your Instagram stories to direct people to your sales, you know, or whatever.

I always think that you have to work so much in your service and the quality of your service and your products, and. All of that process is going to give the storytelling that you going to reach to your audience. Mm-hmm. That's it. So, yeah. Well, there are three things that we wanted to chit chat with you guys about.

Mm-hmm. Now we're gonna go organize the mess of this bus and have a tea. But be a content queen or king, and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining Mitch and I today. Please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends.

You can do this by adding it to, into Stories and tagging us at Content. Queen Mariah, or just tell 'em about it. Hit the share button. Um, I know you can do it. I know you have, 'cause people have told me they've shared episodes with friends and I love that. But if you haven't left a rating or review. Santi, our slough heat bag, heat pack microphone would love for you to do that.

So it helps me get more amazing guests on and more amazing content. So let me know anything you want me to talk about in the future as well. I'd love suggestions for episodes or things you're struggling with, and we'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment