PODCAST – Social Media Marketing (But Make It Stress-Free) w/Carla Serrano

Let’s just come out and say it, social media can be fucking stressful. Between the constant algorithm changes, confusing suggestions for posting, and the never-ending evolution of content types, we’ve all got our heads spinning a bit.

However, we also have to be honest with ourselves and face the fact that social media content marketing is one of the BEST ways to promote your brand. 

It can be completely free and the organic nature of discovery and engagement others so many benefits for digital entrepreneurs to meet new target audience members and build a community.

So then, what do we do about all of the aforementioned stressors?

Allow me to introduce you to Carla Serrano – Social Media Manager / Strategist and Founder of Serrano Socials, who joins me on EP 48 of The Wild Womn Hotline. In this conversation, Carla takes us by the hand and walks us through a very down-to-earth approach to social media marketing.

During our chat, Carla shares her expert perspective on using social media to build community, increase your visibility, build brand recognition, and most importantly, increase your conversions and sales. Feed that funnel, baby! Check out the outline (below) of this episode to see a full breakdown of the topics we cover. 

Trust me, this is an episode you will want to save and listen to over, and over

In this episode about social media marketing, we discuss…

• What most entrepreneurs get wrong about their social media presence and content (2:38).
• The best metrics for understanding what your audience resonates with and how to use your personality to leverage your content (7:20).
• The types of content you need to feed your sales funnel and drive conversions in your business (10:40).
• How to create a quarterly content calendar for your social media that helps you market consistently so that you hit your business goals (15:45).
• Is social media really the KING of content marketing and down many platforms should we really be on? (21:15)
• The biggest myths and misconceptions around social media marketing that interfere with your success (25:20).
• Best tools for finding relevant hashtags for your content (28:00)
• The reason why you are experiencing a dip in engagement on Instagram (29:38).
• How to get more comments on your social media posts so that you can engage with your audience more (32:53).
• How to prevent social media burnout (38:26).

Meet the Host and Guest Expert 

Links and resources from this episode on social media marketing

Connect with Carla Serrano and Serrano Socials

• @serranosocials (IG + TIikTok)
• serranosocials.com

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Flick.tech 
• Hastag Slayer 
• SocialHustlr
• Jera Bean 
• @itsnicolenixon

Click here to listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts!

Want us to send you a free gift? Leave a rating and/or review on Apple Podcasts, and send a screenshot to podcast@wildwomnhaus.com. 

Looking for More Info on Social Media Marketing? Check out these suggested blogs!

• Brand Communication on Social Media – The Cringiest Tips We’ve Ever Heard
• Your Social Media Presence – The 5 Facepalms You’re Making
• Content Creation for Marketing – BTS on how I “DO IT ALL”

Audio Transcript for EP 48 | “Social Media Marketing (But Make It Stress-Free)” w/Carla Serrano

Tristan Thibodeau: Hello, you have reached The Wild Womn Hotline, a place for visionary entrepreneurs like you to listen in on value, packed episodes for growing your brand in bold and strategic ways. 

Hello, wild women. Welcome back to another episode of the hotline. I am so excited that you are here and if we have not met, hello, Hey, hi, how are you doing?

My name is Tristan. I am the founder, CEO, and lead brand strategist at Wild Womn Haus, which is a collaborative brand and marketing agency for female and female-identifying entrepreneurs. 

And I am so excited to have today’s guest on the hotline today because we are talking about all things social media, engagement, community building, growing your visibility, growing your following, creating strategic content, but also staying on top of how to really know the seasons of your business and how to plan around your key launches, your key promotions so that your content is actually serving you instead of just being another thing that stresses you out. This is such a valuable conversation. 

Around the algorithm, about how to have more visibility about the things that most entrepreneurs get wrong with their social media presence, and also just major myths and misconceptions that you may have that a lot of people have that I personally had that Carla, our guests today broke down and debunked for us.

So Carla Serano. Is a social media manager and a strategist. She is based out of Houston, Texas, and has a massive passion for strategy-driven and innovative content for creative female-led brands. She works really closely with business owners to help them push beyond the thresholds of the online space.

So think like polarization. Being really out there, being bold instead of just creating content. She helps them to create an impact and break through the noise of the online space. I am so excited to share Carla with you today. So let’s dive into this episode with Carla Serrano. 

Miss Serano. I am so excited to have you on today.

Carla, thank you for joining us. And you are a genius goddess, wizard expert of all things, social media, and all things, community building, and engagement online. 

And I just want to start off this episode by asking you, what you think most online entrepreneurs get wrong about their social media. And you could be as savage as you want to here. 

Like, do not hold back, give us the scoop. 

Carla Serrano: Ooh, that’s a good question. So I, I hate to say like, there’s, you know, quite a few things that people get wrong when it comes to their social media presence and like building their digital community. Something that I just see a lot is people take strategies that are kind of like more cookie cutter strategies, right and then run with it. 

The point of like those cookie cutter strategies that people sell you, where people teach you is to like tweak them to make it your own. So like, For example, you add no tone voice of your own brand into like, pre-made copy, right? Or like you don’t judge up like certain templates that you buy or you take an engagement strategy and it’s just like dropping emojis everywhere and like the, you know, liking. Like bombing everyone’s pictures. 

So I think a big thing is like, yes, a lot of that stuff is so, so helpful to like building your digital, especially like DIYing it, or like the people who are just like them by themselves building their presence right now. It’s like, you gotta judge up that stuff that you learn from, like, you cannot take cookie-cutter strategies and run with it.

It’s just not gonna work cause you know, you’re gonna get lost. 

Tristan Thibodeau: What do you think stops? And I work exclusively with female and female-identifying entrepreneurs, but I’m just gonna say entrepreneurs in general.  What do you think stops people from knowing how to customize these like templates or these strategies that are more cookie cutter than you’re meant to juush up on your own?

Carla Serrano: I think people genuinely get like scared of like, is this gonna be too controversial? 

Is this gonna push my audience over the edge? 

Like, are people not gonna like this? Like, what are they gonna say? What are they gonna think? Like, I think people keep it so vanilla sometimes. Just because like, I mean, we’re human right.

I’m not gonna sit here and say, I’ve never once thought, like, cared about what someone thought of me or like someone thought of my business. But I think we take it to the extreme sometimes. And like fear just ends up taking over that. We’re not able to like show up authentically as ourselves and like put that personality into strategies.

Um, so I feel like that fear mindset is definitely something that like, takes a while. Like it takes a while to like work on, you know, 

Tristan Thibodeau: Yeah, for sure. And I’m also curious when you talk about customizing strategies that people give us because I. You cannot go on Instagram. You cannot go on TikTok without somebody being like, here’s what you need to do to grow your following and increase your engagement or convert more of your audience to clients or customers.

So when you say like customizing those strategies, what goes into that? So if we’re on TikTok and like, oh, that’s a great idea. Do this, do this, do this, do this. How do we take that? And then customize it for our business and our audience 

Carla Serrano: So first you really wanna just understand, like, what does your audience really resonate with? Right. So maybe if you’re kind of newer in the, like building your online presence, your social media presence, obviously you might not have that da that data yet. Like, you might not know that from your audience yet because you’re still working on building it. So it’s always good to kind of like experiment.

Like, do they respond to more of like this like straightforward raunchy tone? Or are they responding more when I’m being like very, very analytical and data-driven? So you kind of wanna focus on like different avenues on how to deliver that first, when you’re like, starting from like the very beginning, right?

Like what are they gonna also keep in mind? Like what it. What do you resonate with? Right? Because if you are more of like a raunchy in your face, like, let me tell you how it is type person. And then you come on here and you try to. Put on this persona to be so like, you know, like just completely different people are gonna tell and people are gonna be able to look right through that.

So, you know, testing different avenues, but also just being aware of like what type of person you are, like what type of personality you’re infusing into your brand. Um, and then just see what your audience responds to the best and go from there. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Mm, absolutely. And I’m curious, and this might be like a very obvious question, but it’s something that’s been on my mind and this is such a great thing that we’re talking about this right now is when you’re saying, what does your audience respond to?

Are we literally just talking like and engagement comments? Or is there something else that we can tell that people really enjoy? And I know that might be a really obvious question, but for anybody questioning or like, well, how do we tell? What would you say are the best metrics. 

Carla Serrano:  So that’s actually a really good question because yeah, I mean, you know, data at the end of the day, it’s, it doesn’t lie.

Like we wanna look beyond vanity metrics, beyond your number of followers, beyond your likes, but at the end of the day, you know, the data isn’t gonna lie. So yes, it’s important to look at your insights, like, okay which post was, you know, for example, just like spit volume here, like, okay. If I’m gonna look at my analytics over the last 30 days, which post had the most saves.

If I look at the posts that have the most saves, that means that’s information that people need to refer back to later, right? Nine times out of 10. They don’t, I can’t remember the last time I went through my saved folders on Instagram. Um, but I mean, it’s information I saved for a reason it’s information that I had like originally planned to go back to.

So if you’re really trying to like hone in on, like, what do they need to hear right now? What do they really need the most, maybe focus on like what they’re saving to refer back to later? 

Um, if you’re trying to like, a gauge of like, how they’re feeling like what’s going on in their lives, are they experiencing burnout?

Are they in the most productive season of business? Um, you know, maybe put out some like feeler quotes, phrases, see how the shares get on that. If you’re, if you share something about burnout and it gets, you know, 200 shares or whatever it may be, your audience is feeling the exact same way. They’re also experiencing burnout.

They’re also experiencing whatever that is. Um, so it’s kind of like a good general way of like how to gauge what they’re feeling, um, while still being, you know, data-driven and like looking at the analytics, but, you know, sometimes. 

You can just tell, you can just tell by the DMS, you can tell, by the way, people are like communicating on stories, you can tell by, you know, the conversations you’re having with other entrepreneurs, um, people in your industry, you can kind of just like, feel the vibes sometimes. 

And like, it just feels like. Everyone’s going through the same thing, you know.

Tristan Thibodeau: I am so curious. And can we just keep diving into this topic? Cuz I have so many questions. Some of them are very selfish and like, listen, it’s my podcast. I’m gonna ask this, all those questions.

But I am so curious about this because I find that the content that I think is the most informative, the most interesting giving, the most support for people to grow their brand, cause that’s what my arena is in brand strategy gets the least amount of engagement and then the things that are more showing my personality are more, you know, I have some sassy in me.

I have a lot of high dramatic energy. So when those things come out, that’s the stuff that gets more engagement. So how can, and just me personally, anybody listening, that’s having this too. 

How can we bridge the gap between delivering that really high-value information that maybe doesn’t perform as well, combined with the stuff that people love to see of our personality?

Cause my big fear with that is, well, I’m not just here to entertain you. I’m here to give I’m here to help you. I’m here to support you. I’m here to give you the information that you other. May not have access to, or don’t know where to start. So that’s a kind of, not frustration, but a question that I’ve had with my own content is like, okay, what is going on here?

Cause the stuff that I think is fucking fire is like, well yeah. 

Carla Serrano: So that’s, that’s a good point. And I feel like I could break this up kind of into like two ways. So the first kind of analogy I like to give is like, Think of your content as any other funnel that you use in business. Right? 

So if you have a freebie, you’re gonna have, like, let’s say 50 people join your freebie. The amount of people that are actually gonna convert into your higher ticket offering is not gonna be that 50. It’s gonna be maybe like 10, 20% of that, like on a good day. Right? So. And then the people that convert from that mid ticket into like your higher ticket, one-on-ones like the, it just keeps getting smaller from your free, you know, your freebie.

So the way I kind of look at content, sometimes it’s kind of like a funnel. You have that entertaining personal content that really draws people in. That’s how people discover you. That’s how people find you. That’s how people like it. Really get to know you and like you and trust you. And then it kind of like, okay, you’re giving those juicy gems, right?

Like those like that really good content that just like is a whole course, basically, in a post and to you, you’re like, okay, well that didn’t perform as well as like me dancing and like lip syncing on this real, but the right people are seeing it. So that. Kind of like the triangle gets more narrow. That funnel gets more narrow and it’s yeah, you have all these people discovering you this way, but the right people are gonna stay around for what they came here for.

Like what. I found you, but why should I stay? Do you know what I mean? Um, so that’s kind of like one way. And then, um, also just a lot of people don’t see the content. Sometimes if you really go into your post analytics, you can see how many of your followers actually saw that piece of content. 

So I always tell people, don’t be afraid to repurpose in every which way possible, because someone either just didn’t see it. 

They missed it or like they need to see it again. So turning that piece of content into like a mini training on stories or going live with someone else and like sharing those details or making a clog about it or even a podcast.

So that piece of content can be repurposed in so many ways. So I always urge people like, yes, it maybe it didn’t perform the best, but like how, how much can you actually take from that thing that you wrote that is so good and put it in other channels, 

Tristan Thibodeau: You know, really smart, really smart. And like, these are all things that.

I think I’ve heard these things before, but the way you just explained it in terms of why these things are happening and why they may not be responding the first time that you put it out, kind of unlocked something in my head. So thank you for that. 

And if you kind of had to give a ratio or is there a ratio of that like personality-driven, let’s get, let’s help you get to know me.

Let me draw you in verses that like value punch content. Is there an ROI ratio or should we just feel it out?

Carla Serrano: It really, really depends. And I feel like people hate that answer. Like you just give the formula and like, let me run with it but like, it really depends. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Come on, man. Give me the details now, I get it! 

Carla Serrano: Like it depends on your goals at the time, like if you’re trying to push a group program or a group course, and your audience is already super warm and they’ve already gotten to know you really well, you might not need that, like entertaining content as much and focus more on like that nurturing value-driven content, especially if you’re pushing like, a sale or something like that. 

If you’re in the beginning stages of business and like your goal is just to like reach people, reach the right people, then yeah, I would, I would focus more on like that, you know, entertaining, get to know me to type content. So it just really depends on like your goals, what you have going on the, in the next, like three-ish months, and kind.

You have to figure out, what percentage is working well, based on what you have going on and what you’re trying to accomplish. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Mm-hmm okay. So you just like opened up a whole can of worms here around content planning and planning out your year. Yeah. Because to be able to do that effectively, you have to know quarter by quarter what your goals are.

Yeah. And I feel like that’s something that a lot of entrepreneurs just don’t do because we’re so caught in the day-to-day of not putting all the fires, but keeping the thousands of plates spinning, right? Yeah. So in terms of planning content, like how in-depth do you suggest people get to help them know like, okay, right now I’m focused on growth so I’m gonna make a lot more viral, like sharable entertaining content. Right now I’m focused on nurturing. So I’m gonna zoom in on relationship building. Now I’m focused on selling. So I’m gonna focus on that high-value conversion-driven content. 

How would you suggest that somebody that is maybe she just like, oh my God! Maybe just writes their content week by week and don’t have a bigger plan. 

How would you suggest they get started with a more intentional strategy? 

Carla Serrano: So that’s also a really good point because I always tell, you know, for example, I, I plan out reels and edit reels for clients and it only works if the client can actually dedicate the time to filming that because I can’t be their face, obviously. Right? 

Like I can’t film a reel for them. So I always like to have that conversation at the beginning. It’s like, how much can you actually commit to it without it being overwhelming for you because when it gets to the point where it’s overwhelming, you’re just not gonna do it. Like, it’s just not gonna happen. 

If I have a client that’s gonna commit to five-year-olds a week and they’ve never even posted one. It’s just like, that’s not gonna happen. So making it very digestible. Um, let’s say you’re planning your year, as the plan may be for four to five big launches, campaigns, events, whatever sales that you plan on having throughout that quarter.

So let’s say it’s one launch a quarter. Do you know what that launch generally is gonna be? Is it gonna be a group program? Is it gonna be a new product? Is it gonna be, uh, like a new one-on-one or, you know, a completely passive digital course?

Have the basics of what it’s gonna be and what people need to hear before they actually are ready to purchase or before they’re ready to even think about purchasing. Right. Um, so once you break it down by quarter, it gets a lot easier because then you can like zoom in okay. If quarter two, I’m planning to sell a group program.

Let’s say I know that the end of, or the beginning of quarter one. I really have to focus on visibility content. So maybe for like one month, you focus on like that virality content that like, like to know trust factor, um, to get more eyes on you. And then maybe as you zoom in on the quarter, you’re like, okay, I’m growing my audience, I’m engaging really well like this is hitting home. 

People are getting to know me. I’m sharing enough.. Now, when you’re getting closer to your actual launch period, focus on that nurture and that education content. So when you have an idea of like, okay, if I know January is gonna be all this like trending real stuff, you can hop in every week and be like, okay, I know a general idea of what I have to post this month or what I have to post this week.

And then let’s say like February, it’s like, okay, now I have to get more into the nitty gritty, like juicy topics. Right, now you know, you have to deliver education, but by that point, you’re probably already getting questions in your DMS. You’re getting questions, um, in your comments or, you know, whatever, you kind of have a sense of what people are looking for and you can just use that market research to make that content as it gets closer to that big event for your quarter.

I hope that wasn’t like two. 

Tristan Thibodeau: No, it’s good. And like, I think people need to hear this because you know, even myself. Within the last couple years has been the fir I’ve been a business owner since 2016. Within the last couple years is the first time that I’ve actually looked at my year as a whole, instead of just going day by day.

And I think that that’s something that can overwhelm you, but it’s also something that can maybe make you feel locked into a lack of flexibility. 

So let’s just say like, I wanna launch in. February, but then something comes up in January. Do we pursue that launch? Like, do we keep doing it? So that’s something I think a lot of people struggle with.

When do you suggest people sit down and kinda look at their year as a whole plan out their launches? And then it sounds like what you do is quarter by quarter, you sit down with the plan and evaluate the content rather than planning the content for the whole year. Am I right in that? 

Carla Serrano: Yeah, for sure. Just because stuff changes, your audience changes. Um, you know, the algorithm changes, everything changes. So you wanna make sure that yes, you have structure, but you also have room for flexibility because it, once you get too detailed, too far in advance, It might not work the way you thought it was gonna work and you have to like totally pivot, you know, the game plan.

So I would say like plan it generally by year and then very general at the end couple quarters, but the one you really wanna zoom in on is the one quarter that you’re in. 

So I would say maybe sit down every quarter and like reevaluate. Okay. How did last quarter go? Did I accomplish my goals of like the high engagement of more visibility, X, Y, Z goals?

What worked, what didn’t work? Um, do I need to continue this or can I move into the next stage of like content? So I would say sit down maybe once a year, maybe twice a year to do the big picture planning and then, um, you know, every quarter to do more of the micro-planning and then like month to month, week to week, however, you like to actually like write out your copy and, you know, film stuff.

Tristan Thibodeau: Beautiful. Okay. So then a layer above that is if people have additional marketing channels outside of social media. How do you, do you work with people that may be like prioritize a blog or prioritize a podcast or prioritize a YouTube video and then kind of repurpose micro topics from that? Or do you focus more on like, so I’m curious about your perspective, like, do you think social media is a king, or is there more of like a hierarchy that then funnels into social media when you’re planning content? When you’re working with clients, et cetera. 

Carla Serrano: Yeah, so it really depends on like where you’re seeing the most traffic come in. Right? Like if you’re seeing a ton of traffic coming in through TikTok and you know, Instagram just isn’t hitting home, like you wanna focus your attention to where your audience is at, where are they hanging out, because if you’re hanging out and delivering content on platforms that they’re just not. Resonating with, you know, your efforts are better elsewhere. And I don’t want people to think that they have to be on every single platform. Like you don’t have to be on Pinterest and Instagram and TikTok. And in email, like, you know, like email lists are so important, don’t get me wrong, you know, like they’re so, so important.

So you wanna make sure that you do have that, but like, you don’t have to be on every single platform right off the bat, take the time to really zoom in on like two, maybe once you get really good at like two and you’re good at repurposing that content start that email list so you have an audience that you actually can talk to if one of these platforms shuts down because we saw Instagram shut down for like an entire day last year.

So, I mean, 

Tristan Thibodeau: Everyone lost their shit. Yeah. Like the epitome of over-dramatizing, something was the Instagram, and Facebook shutdown. People were like, my business is over. I’m never gonna survive. 

I’m like a girl. Cool, your tits. You’re fine. Trust me. 

Carla Serrano: I took the day off. I was like, I’m taking the day off. I’m gonna go sit by the pool.

I’m gonna have a drink. Like you’re telling me I don’t have to post on Instagram today. Cool. I’ll take it. I take the day off because it’s important to be able to like own your platform for sure. So like your email list, your website is huge. So you want to prioritize those once you have a good flow of content going in because you can’t rely on these platforms forever right. 

You never know when the algorithm is gonna change again and like maybe not push out your content or whatever it may be. Um, so yeah, so don’t put, um, like stress on yourself to be on every single freaking platform. Mm-hmm um, like cuz then you’re just gonna burn yourself out if we’re being honest.

Tristan Thibodeau: Yes. Uh, 100%. And I have a selfish question like I said, be as Savage as you need to be, but I, when we launched the agency in February, we kind of launched across like a, a thousand platforms. Yeah. So our core platforms that drive the most traffic for us are TikTok and Instagram. 

We also have LinkedIn, we also have Facebook. We also have Pinterest and we have an email list and we have a blog and we have a website and we have a podcast, right? 

So I was like, I just want visibility on those other platforms. Yeah. But what I’m finding. I mean, there’s no life in those platforms because that’s not where our attention is. So from your perspective, is it best to just kind of stop?

Cause I guess the fear with stopping is you don’t want it to look like it’s been abandoned. Yeah. But also cuz I, I perceive that people view that as like, oh well are they not successful anymore? Cause there’s not been a post since last year or what’s happening here. 

So have I just like. Shove my foot up my ass by doing this, or like, what would your advice be to maybe somebody that kind of buck shotted their visibility and they’re finding, okay, this platform or this platform are the main drivers, but what about all these other ones that we created a, uh, you know, a presence on, what do we do now?

Carla Serrano: Um, so no, I definitely don’t think that you like screwed yourself over or anything like that. If, if you can repurpose and like you have a later account and it’s like synced up to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever, you know, like, and you can repurpose that then yeah go for it. Even if it’s not like super active or anything like that, put your attention to the two to three platforms that are really bringing you in that lead. 

Or the, those clients like really focus your attention on those. Um, and then just like continue the repurposing on the other ones, because it’s not hurting your business. Um, once you have like more of downtime or like you actually have this, the time to go in and like build out that LinkedIn strategy and build out that Facebook strategy that are totally separate from Instagram and TikTok, then that can happen.

Um, but I definitely don’t think there’s anything wrong with just like repurposing it there, even if it’s not your soul, you know, focus when I mean, like, you don’t need to be on every platform. It’s like, don’t stress out. If you can’t make that LinkedIn right now, mm-hmm or you can’t make that, you know, switch over to Twitter or whatever I’m like, does anyone like use Twitter?

Tristan Thibodeau: Like certain niches do, but like, honestly, Mm. like, 

Carla Serrano: Twitter’s always that one that like gets left behind, so yeah. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Yep. and you brought up the algorithm multiple times and I feel like this is an awesome segue into myths that you want to debunk. So like, what are the big things? And we can start with things around the algorithm that you’re like, guys.

No, like listen, no, or other myths that are around, you know, creating a social media presence, creating a community, creating engagement, and then converting. 

Carla Serrano: Um, okay. So I feel like there are a few on here. Um, I feel like the biggest one I’ve seen in the LA and this is like so small, but like, it’s so funny to me, um, is like, you can’t go in and edit your caption after you posted it or it like won’t show up on the few, which is.

Not true. like Instagram wouldn’t have given you that feature if it didn’t want you to use it. Right. So I feel like that’s one, it’s like, you know, you can totally go in and edit your caption. I do it all the time. It doesn’t hurt the reach or anything. Mm-hmm um, so that might be one.

Another big one right now, I think is hashtags. Like people are just like, do I use them? Like, do I not like, do I have three in my post? And, um, I always say like, If you’re just gonna put hashtags because you think it’s gonna reach a new audience, but they have nothing to do with your post or your niche or your industry or anything like that. Just like don’t add them because the way hashtags are working now, it’s just like, it, it separates your content.

It organizes your content. Think of it into like buckets, right. Um, if you’re not a photographer and you’re using like hashtag wedding photographer hashtag this and that hashtag that, like, Instagram’s not gonna know how to categorize your content. So just put like five really good ones that are able to categorize your content and you know, you’re good to go, you don’t need to like throw in all that extra stuff. 

Tristan Thibodeau: That’s super smart and I feel like we could go down a rabbit hole with this, so I don’t wanna. Take up too much time. Cause I have so many other juicy questions for you, but what is your favorite way to find relevant hashtags? Is there a tool that you use, is there a platform that you use or do you do it manually?

Carla Serrano: so I love using flick.com for all my client’s hashtags, you can see like how they’re performing. You can find other relevant hashtags. It’s a really good tool. It’s really, um, it’s affordable too so it’s not like anything crazy. Um, so flick.com is like my number one go to, and then always just like, Good old-fashioned manual searching on Instagram. Like it does the job. So, you know. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Yeah, definitely. And I just to throw some others into the mix, I know hashtag Slayer is a newer one that hasn’t necessarily gotten the most visibility. Yeah. But they’re really cool. Um, it’s a search engine platform. It’s a monthly membership, just like flick is. 

And then other than that, I’ve been working with a company that like hand selects hashtags for you so that one is, uh, like a social bump or something like that and trying it out. But, um, hashtags are something I feel like a lot of people get stressed out about. 

And the way that you just explained it is like, think about it. Like your buckets, pick hashtags that are relevant to your content pillars. So Instagram knows what the fuck to do with your account. 

Carla Serrano: Yeah. Like how are they organize your content?

Tristan Thibodeau: Yeah. I feel like everybody has this opinion that the algorithms are out to get them. so can we, can we talk about the algorithm and like how the sister out is the, is the, um, like Instagram kind of just world now, is everybody experiencing a dip in engagement?

Carla Serrano: Like did something happen where we’re seeing more engagement or are we just not doing a good job with our content? 

So overall. Uh, it’s so crazy. Cause like whenever TikTok started blowing up and Instagram really started transitioning into reels. I feel like it was very difficult for business owners to keep up, um, with something that they are just not used to, right. So like we back in like, you know, years ago, it was cool to just like post a graphic, call it a day. It reached thousands of people, you got tons of engagement and like you had followers from it. And now it’s, it’s a different type of content. And it’s not that the algorithm is working against you.

It’s just favoring the people who are, um, how do I say it? Like really taking advantage of those features, but making. I think people complicate it a lot more than they need to, you know, a reel doesn’t have to be you. Memorize a song and lip-sync to it for 60 seconds. It doesn’t have to be your dancing.

It doesn’t have to be all these crazy transitions. Sometimes the reels that perform the best are literally just. A time-lapse of you working with some text over it and like call it a day or like some video that you took, uh, maybe like at the beach or something with like some tips on it and you know, that’s good enough.

I don’t think you need to necessarily have all this, like a super high-quality video and like all these crazy transitions in order for the algorithm to work with you. If you give it like a good video with like good tips on it, I mean, that’s good enough, right? 

Like you don’t need to. I think people stress out way too much about like the video editing portion of it and I’m like, it really does not have to be that hard. I promise you that’s me. 

Tristan Thibodeau: I’m like looking at my whiteboard that has what I wanna buy for my business. And I have box lights on there. Okay. Well, the lighting studio, quality lighting 

I mean, right me right now, I like setting this isn’t even a desk I’m like on the ledge of my window.

Carla Serrano: Cause this is the best lighting. And so I’m like, I get the lighting, I get the lighting. The lighting is real. 

Tristan Thibodeau: The lighting is real. I have a client who was like, the second that I improved my lighting, I got like a hundred thousand followers. I’m like what? Does she mean? I didn’t do anything different, but yeah, that makes so much sense.

Cuz it’s just people enjoy better, 

Carla Serrano: like higher quality content with the lighting’s good. yeah, we put just like, you know, sometimes I just set up my tripod while I’m working here and like good lighting and mm-hmm I just have like the time-lapse going and that works like, that’s good. That’s like low effort video.

Tristan Thibodeau: So I love it. I love it so much. And I think one place that we could go and there’s like two more questions I have for you. If you had to give us the scoop on how to create content for visibility, engagement, and audience growth, and also troubleshooting something that I feel like a lot of people might be experiencing is maybe they get a lot of likes, but they don’t get comments.

So how, like comments are such a great way for us to know what’s landing as business owners for us to literal. Engage with our audience, cuz you can’t do a lot with likes other than seeing who liked your post, go over to their page and engage with their page, which is like, okay, won swamp. 

But where are the comments? Like how do we get more comments on our content so we can actually nurture and get to know our audience more? 

Carla Serrano: Yeah. So. Um, that’s a good question because comments, it just like depends. Right. So when I see the most engaging comment-wise and like people actually interacting with the post is when you are like, just absolutely hitting home with something that is either super personal, super relatable, or like an issue that you’re facing that other people have also faced. 

So maybe it’s like an unethical practice in your industry that like, no one’s talking about, but everyone is thinking about it. And if you are the one to say it, people are going to resonate and it’s not gonna be that like, OMG girl love this heart, heart, heart-type comments. Right.

It’s like, okay, this actually hits home to a lot of people. And a lot of people are actually feeling this. um, which I know that content sometimes is kind of harder to create, but it doesn’t have to be like three of that type of content every single week. Like you can do one of those, like every two weeks and people are gonna resonate with it for like weeks to come because it’s being shared with other audiences.

It’s being like saved. It’s being sent in the DMs, like OMG, like this girl. So what I was thinking right. So that type of content always tends to perform best engagement-wise. Um, another trick that I feel like has been so helpful is like, you wanna make it as easy as you can for everyone, like make it so like so easy, it hurts.

Um, so one of the tactics that I’ve been using with my clients for a while now is, We’re doing like a really good juicy engaging post. Like all the gems are being dropped in this post. Um, we’ll break it up into parts one and part two. And the comment, the CTA will be like drop a pink heart if you wanna be tagged when part two is up and it just like.

This is what you need to comment on, and this is what I’m gonna give you. And it’s just the easiest thing for people to be like, okay. Yeah. I wanna see part two, right? 

Tristan Thibodeau:  mm-hmm, that’s super smart. And that, like that showed up in my social media presence is like my top performing, like most views, most shares, most, most comments, most likes video on TikTok was something where I took.

A massive concept. That’s really complex for people to understand. So what is your mission? What are your values? And then what do you like, who do you serve? Taking that all in like for dummies simplifying it down and it was so painful. I thought it was awful. Cause it was like so stupid to me. And so like where’s, where’s the good information.

Like where’s the depth, like how do I do this? But it was such an intuitive way to explain it. Yeah. And it was so simple that it just blew up and it like drove so much engagement, so much traffic. So I can vouch for that. Like that works. Yeah. When you take something, cuz we have a way of explaining things that are way too complex.

Cause we’re in the world and we think, oh, more information is better. But on social media, that is the opposite, like when you’re coaching somebody. Sure. But like when you’re, or when you’re working with somebody, but on social media, like the simpler, the better. Yeah. So I can, when a hundred percent bounce for that.

Carla Serrano: I always say, and it’s funny, cuz I’ve had a lot of clients say that too. Like I feel like this might be too general. I feel like this might be too broad. It’s like not deep enough or it’s not like juicy enough. And I’m like, you think that because you are the expert in this field, you know, every corner of this industry, your audience doesn’t.

So you kind of wanna give it to them in a very digestible way, which I think is also one thing that people kind of worry about when hiring a social media manager is like, how is she gonna know my industry? How is she gonna know these tips? Like, how is she gonna write that content? 

It’s almost better from an outside perspective.

If you write it in a way. It’s just more digestible because you’re gonna write it in a way that makes sense to you, as opposed to writing it in a way that’s digestible for your audience, you know? 

Tristan Thibodeau: Yeah. But I’m already thinking like, oh my God, I need Carla. I need Carla in my life. I, I love everything that you shared.

And like you gave such phenomenal insights on how to really simplify content creation, building an audience, building a community, getting your engagement up, and paying attention to what people respond to. And one place I wanna go to kind of wrap things up is a lot of people put so much of themselves into their social media and so much of their time and energy into their social media, but also into their business.

Like we have so many things that we are doing on a daily basis. Even if you have a support team. I’ve got a VA, I’ve got a full team of like designers that collaborate with me, a copywriter, fashion and style consultant. And I am still stacked with things to do. Like the list never ends. Yeah especially with social media, like trying to keep up with trends and trying to observe what people are responding to, and trying to genuinely connect with people.

Yeah through a screen, we put a lot of ourselves into our business, into our social content. And I know burnout is something that you have had personal experience with. It’s also something I’ve had experience with like massive, massive burnout, at least two times to where I had to take months off of work.

Completely. Can you share a little bit about your story with burnout, but then also the things that you’re doing differently to prevent it moving forward or any advice that you have for people that are like, oh my God, I feel caught on a hamster wheel with social media. I’m so frustrated. I’m so tired. I just wanna.

Carla Serrano: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I feel like the best thing someone has told me is if you don’t plan rest your body will plan it for you. And like, I, that could not be further from the truth. Like my body literally shut down because I refused to give me a break. And I have been in that position more than once, you know, and like pretty recently too.

So I feel like burnout and work-life balance are something that I’m just like constantly striving for. Um, my big thing is like for a long time, I was, um, like planning to outsource. I was like, I need a VA. I need someone that like, you know, can be on my right hand. And like, be a partner in this business or a collaborator in this business.

Um, and I just pushed it off for so long to the point where I was like, I’m hiring like, You know, you hire out of desperation, which is never a good thing. And there’s a saying, like a hire before you’re ready. Yes. Kind of like you wanna make sure you’re semi-ready. You wanna make sure that you have like the backend to support someone that you’re outsourcing to.

Um, but also not waiting until the point of your like, okay, I have this due like literally tomorrow and I need help because that’s just not gonna work. It’s not gonna work. And hiring people out of desperation is just gonna, I mean, like sometimes it may work. Sometimes you might screw yourself over. Um, so yeah, so I know outsourcing is scary and.

You might try and be trying to push it off for a while, but I promise you that time that you have that you’re doing manual stuff in like Dubsado, like it’s not worth it. It’s not worth it. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Especially Dubsado, but especially dub Sodo. I’m like, I’m not touching my Dubsado. I’m gonna bring there’s no way there’s no, the workflows and the funnels.

Like, it’s amazing what it can do, but I’m like, mm-hmm. Nope, not for me. Not for me. 

Carla Serrano: And I set it up at the beginning, but like, now that I have like more complicated workflows and stuff, I’m like, yeah, I’m not, Nope, Nope. Not free so, yeah. And then also just like paying attention to your body. Like if you, okay.

Actually, you know what, let me backtrack. Nothing that we do or I, that I do at least is an emergency. Absolutely. Nothing I do is going to end of life. Absolutely. Nothing I do is gonna like make or break something that is worth the billions or, you know, 

Your health or anything like that so I think just like taking a step back and like really, really realizing like the world is not gonna end because X, Y, and Z are not done today. 

Um, I come from a background in social work and I was in positions where like if I did not get that medication to that patient today, like that is an emergency or, you know, a patient that is in the hospital that’s an emergency. 

Those are true emergencies. a post being delayed is not an emergency or you not being able to film a reel is not an emergency.

Yeah. So I think we’re so deep into this that we put so much pressure on ourselves. It’s like, just take a step back. it’s okay. Like the world will still revolve. Yes. It’s your business and it’s your income and it’s how you pay your bills and how you pay, your pay your contractors, which is all important.

It’s I’m not saying it’s not important at all. It’s so important, but at the same time, it’s okay. It’s okay if you screw up every now and then it’s okay. If you make a mistake, just take accountability, learn from it and then move on. Right, so I think just taking a step back and just being like, girl, it’s really not that serious.

Tristan Thibodeau: Perspective. 100%. And what you just said is I’ve had to talk myself off a ledge with that explanation. So many times it’s like, Put this into the perspective of the big things that are happening in the world. 

This is not the end of the world of you having to take a week off posting to refocus on something else. Or if that post doesn’t go out today and it goes out tomorrow, or if it screws up the whole aesthetic of your feet.

Oh my gosh like it’s not a big deal. And these are the teeny tiny little things that we like to fixate on. Yeah. And it just blows my mind cuz I do it myself. 

I’m like, oh my gosh, I have to do X amount of content this week. And if I don’t then the algorithm’s gonna bite me in the ass or I’m gonna whatever.

And these are the stories that we tell ourselves, but in the grand scheme of things, like, do you know who Jerra Bean is? 

Carla Serrano: Yes, I think so. Yeah. I think I follow her on TikTok. 

Tristan Thibodeau: She is a social media educator and, um, a consultant for like bigger companies. And she was talking about how she was really, really exhausted after a couple of months of hustling and was terrified to take the weekend off. 

Like hadn’t done this in years. Just did it took the weekend off, like unplugged, detoxed entirely from social media. And she was like, nobody even noticed literally nobody noticed. Yeah. Like the whole, how are they gonna know? They’re never gonna know.

They literally didn’t even notice. No that, and we, these are the stories that we hype ourselves up around that stop us from taking the rest that we need is that the world is gonna crumble. 

If we postpone delay our late on something, miss something. Big picture thinking will save your ass over and over and over again.

Carla Serrano:  Exactly, exactly. And like just that perspective alone is like also, you don’t need to reply to everything ASAP. 

If you see an email, you see a slack message, you see a DM, whatever, and you’re not in a position where you’re like, say you’re like deep in work, you’re out, whatever it doesn’t like, not everything needs your immediate response.

And I think that’s something that we like to hone in so much. It’s like good communication does not mean you’re responding fast. That’s not good communication. Good communication is delivering Hey, this is going out on this day. Like these are the updates. This is what’s going on. Like, this is what I need your support on.

That’s good communication. Good communication is not responding. Two minutes after an email was sent.

Tristan Thibodeau: Let me just let that sit for a minute. Soak in that, if this was a hot tub, just stay in there for a couple of hours cause that was so good. I needed to hear that, cause I am somebody that’s good communication is like being available whenever somebody needs me. And I swear to God, I start to resent my Slack. I start to resent it. I’m like, oh, I hate it. 

Carla Serrano: When I see a message, oh, slack notification. I can’t even like, listen to it without just like, oh my God. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Cringing, we’re all gonna have PTSD from that freaking slack pop bubble sound. I swear, like I heard it in the airport cuz they were doing an advertisement for it, and no, absolutely not. I’d be like, oh, shut it down. Shut it down. 

Carla Serrano: I mean, of course, it’s good to respond in a timely manner. Like just like let your client students peers know, like. Your communication time is like 24 hours.  Maybe your turnaround time is 48 hours or whatever it may be like, obviously, like you wanna make sure that you’re not waiting like a week and a half to respond back to something that’s like, kind of important.

But also just like, don’t put that pressure on yourself. Like it does not need your response. Right away. Mm-hmm um, especially if it’s something that you need to like, let sit in, think about, and then respond to later. 

Tristan Thibodeau: Boundaries and expectations. I love it. I love it so much. Carla, this has been an epic episode. I personally, cause I asked a lot of selfish questions. Got so much great insight from you and I hope everybody listening did too. So for anybody that’s like, oh my God, I need to connect with this woman. Where can we find you? Where do you prefer for people to connect with you? And do you have anything that you wanna share that would be timely for the next couple of?

Carla Serrano: Okay. Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram and TikTok @serranosocials. Keep in mind that TikTok is still a work in progress. um, so yeah, but you can find me @serranosocials if you wanna head to my website. 

Um, and yes, I actually just dropped. D-IG-Y content vault, which is a totally DIY version of like building your social media strategy from your goals, your audience, and competitor analysis to hashtags, to fillable content calendar, and you know, like Madlibs caption. So it’s like, And not to mention branding too. So it’s like a DIY branding, DIY your logo, color palette, typography, all that fun stuff. 

I did it with @itsNicoleNixon Um, so we just launched that. Um, so yeah. And you can find that on my link in, on Instagram too. Mm-hmm I’m gonna have to go check that out.

Like I have a whole system, but I’m always curious to find better ways to do it. 

So I’m gonna go check that out ASAP and check you out on Instagram and on TikTok. Is there anything else that you wanna share before we close any last little wisdom nuggets or like hype up motivation? Anything that you wanna say?

Carla Serrano:  No, like just, I mean, connect with me. If something hit home, like make sure you let me know. Cuz I feel like we dropped some, this was a really good episode. I can’t wait to listen back to it. I feel like this is really good. 

Tristan Thibodeau: So yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you just like, I was gonna say this after we stopped recording, but you have one of the best like grounded, authoritative voices.

And I was like, well damn, thank you so much for coming on, Carla. This was super, super fun. 

Carla Serrano: Sweet. Thank you so much for having me. 

Tristan Thibodeau: That is a wrap on today’s episode with Carla Serano. I had the best time talking to Carla. She has So much knowledge and such a great perspective on how to use social media, but also how to keep your sanity with social media.

So that it’s an actual tool for growing your business instead of just an added stressor. And if you wanna connect with Carla, I tend added 10 suggestions that you do. So her brand is beautiful. I love her personality. She has so much wisdom to share, and you can find her on Instagram and TikTok on seranosocials, and definitely go peek at her website, Serranosocials.com. It’s stunning, it is beautiful. 10 out of 10 suggest. 

And like she said, if you are somebody that is looking for more structure, more support with your Instagram and with your social media presence and strategy, definitely check out her D I G Y content vault, where you will have access to everything that you need to build a social media strategy and brand for your social media.

So, if you enjoyed today’s episode, I would be so grateful if you could head on over to the apple podcast. 

And leave us a rating or review, give Carla some love, go follow her on social, but also write about how much you enjoyed this episode and leave us a rating or review. And if you do so, take a screenshot of it and email it to us at podcast Wildman, house.com and we will send you a free gift in the mail as a sign of gratitude.

I appreciate you showing up today and listening to this episode, I hope you gained a lot of insight. Go connect with Carla, go secure the bag and go chase that impact and income that you’re after.