How to Create Social Media Content that Converts | Xenia Muntean

Matt Edmundson

Well, good afternoon and welcome to the eCommerce podcast with me your host Matt Edmundson just going to move that screen. How's your how's your day going? We're having a very interesting day here in the UK, that's for sure. I hope yours is getting better than ours. And what we're going to do today is we are going to do the recording of our eCommerce podcast like we do every Thursday. And today's guest we have Xenia joining us who is just lovely. And we're going to get into all things social media with Xenia, which you are going to listen to just a quick heads up. This recording is pretty well, this podcast is actually pre recorded it due to time zones and differences, we had to do it a slightly different way than we would normally do it. So I just wanted to give you the heads up. This is a pre recorded message, which you are about to hear. But that's why I know it's good, right? So you're going to want to listen to this, genuinely, you're going to want to listen to this. Ordinarily, if you're watching this, what we tend to do is we tend to do a live recording of the podcast wherever possible, I do this quick introduction, and then we go straight into the podcast. And before. So before we do that, I just wanted to give a quick shout out a quick reminder, I'm going to click this link here. There we go. I'm going to give you a quick reminder about the eCommerce summit that is coming up. If you're a regular to the show, you will know that we had Chloe on recently talking about the eCommerce summit, the eCommerce masterplans summit, which she is doing, which I'm really excited about. I'm one of the speakers there. I know quite a few of the speakers at that conference. Let me tell you, it is blindingly good. I mean, astoundingly good. So you are definitely going to want to make sure that you go to that summit, okay? I cannot emphasise enough, how much of a good idea this is going to be for you genuinely, you're going to want to head there. Okay. So do make sure you head on over to that summit. And you can see the link at the bottom of the screen eCommercepodcast.net/summit, it will take you to the login page. It is free. Okay, I do want to emphasise this point, Chloe is putting this on totally for free. She has managed to get some sponsors who are quite happy to give her a whole bunch of cash to do it, which I think is a beautiful thing. So it means that you don't actually have to pay for it. Which is quite nice. So I'm just busy here, making sure everything's linked up ready for the show. So do check it out. do go to that link eCommercepodcast.net/summit. It's only a week or so away to the summit. I think it's June 8, something like that. So do check it out. Do sign up and sign up now. Okay, do it now. Now, I'm just going to wait here while you do it. Okay. I think that's enough tomfoolery from yours truly. So I am going to play now the recording from Xenia. This in effect is a recording of the eCommerce podcast if you're watching this intro. Thanks for being part of the live stream. Thanks for being part of our video community. Make sure you subscribe, do all those wonderful things. And I'll see you in a slightly different outfit with a slightly different haircut. On the other side of this intro.

Sadaf Beynon

Welcome to the eCommerce podcast with Matt Edmundson, a show that brings you regular interviews, tips and tools for building your business online.

Matt Edmundson

Well, hello, and welcome to the eCommerce podcast with me your host Matt Edmundson. Now whether you are just starting out, or if like me, you've been around the world of eCommerce for a fair while my goal is simply to help you grow your eCommerce and digital businesses. And we do that by chatting to the amazing people that we get to meet from the world of eCommerce. We get to do this every week, get to ask them all kinds of questions about what they know, and how it's going to help us develop online. I kind of try and have those conversations that you would have if you got to sit down with them for a cup of coffee. Yes, that's how we do it here on the show. So a big warm welcome to big warm welcome, especially if you're new to the show, make sure you subscribe, because we put out regular content like this every week, always great to connect with new people. Because we've got amazing guests and I just I just love digging into their story. I love sucking out from them all the knowledge that we can get and the principles so we can you know, start grow, build our own online businesses. So if you enjoy this episode, I would appreciate it if you like, comment and share if you're watching it on YouTube or on Facebook, of course. But if you're listening to the audio podcast, which you know, many of you do, make sure you share with your friends and colleagues and give us a review. Now, on this week's eCommerce podcast, we are looking at all things to do with social media. Yes, we have a very special guests called Xenia, who is from plantable.io and we are going to be talking about social media social media goals, deciding what the best content is, how to plan it, and how to engage your customers. Oh, yes, because Xenia is the founder and CEO of Planable, which is a collaboration tool for social media teams. So do check it out. And we've got a very special offer. For those of you who are listening or watching the eCommerce podcast. Stay tuned for that, because we're going to reveal that and how you can get a little bit of an introduction to Planable. Oh, yes, stay tuned, because it's going to be great for you. So the reason I'm looking forward to this conversation and talking to Xenia is, but it's because of the plan, the Planable platform, right? She is so hooked up to data and insight from what's working across the whole industry for a whole bunch of people. I want to know what's working in 2021. So she's got all the answers, I've no doubt and there's no pressure obviously, on our guests when I say things like that, but I am really looking forward to this. Now, make sure you grab your notebooks, but if you can't, if you're driving, or you know jogging around the park or doing whatever it is you're doing listening to the show, you will be pleased to know that all of the notes from today's show will be available as a free download. All you've got to do is head on over to our website, the eCommerce podcast website, which is www.eCommercepodcast.net/65 and that will take you straight to the notes for this episode, Episode Number 65. That's right. So now without further ado, shall we bring on today's guest? I think we should. I'm going to click this button and Xenia welcome. Welcome to the show. Great to have you. Thanks for being here.

Xenia Muntean

Thank you for having me on the show. That is a very kind and very hyped introduction.

Matt Edmundson

Very well. Yeah, like I say no pressure, obviously. Yeah. No pressure at all. Hey, listen, it's great to have you here. Now. Where are we both in Europe? I'm in the UK. whereabouts are you?

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, I'm in Romania. Ukraine.

Matt Edmundson

Okay. How about that? It's always nice to speak to fellow Europeans, although, obviously Britain's now independent of Europe in some respects, but it's quite an extra. How was that in Romania received? By the way? I know, this has nothing to do with anything. I'm just curious to know how Brexit was received in Romania.

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, people don't care that much.

Matt Edmundson

I think I think that's probably fair play. That's how most people fit. We just don't care. We just don't care.

Xenia Muntean

Your choice.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, do what you want to do. Do what you want to do. Brilliant. So let's get into this. Now you are the founder and CEO of Planable. How did that come about? Right. Because, I mean, what did you do just wake up one day and think I'm just going to develop a social media collaboration tool, because we need one?

Xenia Muntean

No, not at all. I wish it was that planned, and then that strategical as you as you say, but no, no, I actually, it happened gradually, really. And yeah, one day, I just woke up and realised that I'm running a tech software company. So I like to say that I'm an accidental entrepreneur by myself. Because even before Planable, I had a Social Media Marketing Agency, and even that agency, even that venture I just started accidentally, you know, I found myself, the first client and I just wanted to do some social media work for them. And fast forward, I ended up with an agency on my hands. And, you know, the Planable it was born kinda through the same through the same story. I had an issue, I had a problem, a challenge that I was struggling in my agency life, more specifically, like the entire collaboration with clients and the back and forth that was happening while we were planning content for them and getting approvals from them. And they just hated working as spreadsheets and PowerPoints. I felt like they were killing my creativity. And just a waste a huge waste of time. I just didn't enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, that's kind of the reason why I started Planable. I just wanted to marketers to have a better environment where they can work together on content specifically for social, and that's how it started. My co founders, I have two co founders and both of them have worked in ad agencies before So they were familiar with the problem as well. And we just started Planable kind of like for ourselves and then realise that there's a huge market out there, we're not the only ones struggling with how to organise how to plan content for social. And yeah, this, you know, gradually became bigger than ourselves.

Matt Edmundson

That's really interesting. I find it fascinating. I've said this before on the show, Xenia I find it fascinating how many people who are entrepreneurial, and I say some How did you start? And, and the common theme amongst answers is like, well, it's kind of by accident, there was, there was a problem, so I decided to make something that solve that problem, you know, it's like, there was this pain point, we did something about it. And before you know it, it's kind of snowballed into this whole whole affair, which we now call an enterprise.

Xenia Muntean

Well, because otherwise, it's really hard to solve a problem that you're not familiar, and you don't have empathy for it. You just don't know how to solve for it. If you just, you know, find a random problem that you haven't bumped into and experienced yourself. But when you're the ideal user, it just goes much, much easier, I would say,

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, I can't imagine. It's just fascinating to me, the whole thing just fascinates me. Anyway, let's talk a little bit then about social media. So you How long have you been involved with social media off and on with your different agencies and now with Planable.

Xenia Muntean

Since, you know, since I was a student, and so you know, of the benches of the university, really, I studied PR and Mass Communication with an angle on digital so very much social media focus and then agency. And even before going to university, I was really fascinated with the the space like reading all the books, everything I could get my hands on, on advertising, but also with the with the passion for social. And then with my agency, I actually got to you know, that's when I did the bulk of my work, the execution really on the social media side. And then now with Planable, I'm working directly with 1000s of social media teams out there, from the agency sides to non-profits, organisations, really, eCommerce is everyone who is doing social, they need some kind of like tool to organise themselves, and we're working with them really hands on, and I've been learning in this five past five years, so much about social media, just from our customers directly. And what works for them.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, social media, for me has always been one of those black holes, right. And it's, it's constantly, it kind of changes and evolves at such a fast pace.

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, you got to keep an eye on this.

Matt Edmundson

I feel for people, you know, especially small businesses, small entrepreneurs, because they this, it's always changing. It's always evolving. How much time do you put into do you know what I mean, and there's all these big questions that people have. There's now you know, more platforms, social media platforms, and we know what to do with clubhouse being the latest one, you know, like, I wouldn't even think about that. So there's, there's all these things going through our head. So what I want to do with social media, I know we talk we talk about it every now and again on the show. But I do think it's important. The I guess in my head, there's two things about social media. One is the advertising platform, right? And it's the ad side of things. And then there's the other side, which is the organic, it's the actual web that actually helps you connect with your audience and your your, your, your friends, I suppose. And are there any other aspects to social media that I need to think about? So we've got ads, we've got the organic side, is there, is there something else?

There's a community management side where it's, you know, responding to comments, and basically customer service online. Those things I would say. And now also, there's the monitoring side of social media, listening to what's happening on social media and responding in real time to potentially PR opportunities or competition opportunities, you know, someone is asking about similar products. And you might jump in those sides, I would say the content, which is more like on the organic side, though ads need to swell and then is leaking the community. And I would say the monitoring as well. That's really good.

Matt Edmundson

That's really good. I like how you talk about the PR side as well. Like, you can jump in on a few things like yeah, at the moment. I don't know if it's due to where you are, but certainly in the UK, the big thing that everybody's watching at the moment is a documentary called Seaspiracy.

Xenia Muntean

I think I've heard about it yeah.

Matt Edmundson

It's on Netflix and every man and their dogs talking about this Seaspiracy thing. And it's quite an interesting documentary. I mean, you know, it's, it's slanted, but it's fascinating and it's eye opening. And there's a company I'm involved with, where actually the the message of Seaspiracy fits so much with what we're doing or we fit so much with that message about the care and stuff of the oceans that were like this is it's an interesting thing, isn't it? Because you what part of you goes, well, people are talking about this, we should be out there on social media, talking about it. But on the other hand, part of me is like, Is there an ethical problem that we have here and exploiting this or do you know what I mean and I have you got any thoughts on that?

Xenia Muntean

I do. I do. I don't think it's unethical. I don't think it's exploiting. This is something that I think it's unethical, when you just come up with this value for your brand when it's happening, right.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah.

Xenia Muntean

You weren't really empathising, with this value before. But something happened and event happened that suddenly this is so core to your business. But if you've been doing this for the past couple of years, if this was really something truly that your business was involved, then and investing in, then I think you have like, this is amazing. You need to embrace it, you need to be there on the forefront, you need to talk about this. I don't think it's unethical at all, we had the same question for ourselves at the beginning of the pandemic, because Planable being a collaboration tool, when everyone started working from home, you can imagine that was, you know, a good, you know, we were well positioned situation, but at the same time, it's a pandemic, so serious and profound and dramatic, and how do you talk about, you know, we can help, but at the same time without sounding like you're taking advantage of it. And in the end, you know, we went through the same logic, like, have we been talking about remote? Have we've been helping with collaboration, you know, all along the way, then yes, you know, we are well positioned in a way I know, it's an unfortunate situation. But, you know, if that's a core value to your business, there's no reason for you to shy away.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, that's very good advice. Very good advice. How I mean, have you mentioned there the pandemic, right, how has that changed how people use social media? Do you think?

Xenia Muntean

I think, I mean, it depends from which, you know, from whose perspective you look at it, they think from the perspective of advertiser, it's changed that into it's a good change. Because people are using it more and more. From a humanity perspective, probably not a very good change. Too much online, we're spending way too much time connecting online. And that's like, connect, but I mean, that's the nature of the pandemic, I think. I think it's generally from my humanities, social perspective, I think there's some good change as well. And I think people have become, and there was a rise in creativity, last year, in terms of the content people were producing online, like, TikTok, what's happening there, and the tools people have, I think, there's just more and more power to the people to create content and engage one another and entertain one another. And there's, you know, less pressure on the on the brands to be the ones in charge of like producing the content and the entertainment. I think it has become more of a democratic environment. That's, you know, that's, that's good. That's good for people for sure.

Matt Edmundson

That's really interesting. Yeah, I see. Like, when you talk about content, people have got a lot more creative, haven't they?

Xenia Muntean

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson

Let's dig into this a little bit. So I mean, what are some of the things that we need to think about, I guess, you know, I've got my ecommerce business. I'm selling, I'm either selling you know, I've got in front of me here Xenia my little Indiana Jones Lego, right. So let's assume I'm selling my Lego online, or am I you know, all the other thing that people like selling digital products, online courses, right. So we've got these things that people are selling online. And I'm saying here, and I'm thinking about social media, and I'm thinking about you know what it is? What is it? I'm going to do had a conversation yesterday, lovely lady a doctor, amazing stuff, wants to start promoting online. I'm like, you need to be on social media every day.

Xenia Muntean

100%.

Matt Edmundson

And she's like, Yeah, I just don't know what to say. I don't know, do you know what I mean? And is this.

Xenia Muntean

A doctor? Wow. Yeah.

Matt Edmundson

It's this whole content thing, it's it's kind of it's a blockage for people. I think.

Xenia Muntean

I know, I agree. I think it's overwhelming because it people feel like they need to have this huge strategy and this huge plan and, you know, make a splash when they start. I see it completely, you know, the other way around, like you need to start small and build upon it and just start simple, right, like do simple steps in the beginning and iterate on it, you know, there's no need to, like have this huge strategy, you just need to have some concepts. And some, you know, like, what do you want to do? And what are your goals? And what type of content Do you want to produce that there's no need to, like, start posting every single day and, you know, publish 100 stories, you know, a day from the beginning, you just start small, get yourself comfortable with the idea that you're on social media, you're doing stuff on social, and then grow it in time. Because I think, you know, this idea of how overwhelming social media content and social media publishing is in the fact that you need to be there every day, every single day, that makes it difficult for people to start, because it just seems like such a monstrous project that they need to get.

Matt Edmundson

That's really good phrase, a monstrous project. I like that.

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, give yourself, if you give yourself the freedom and the past, to do it a bit more simple and, you know, hacky, like, really, you know, a bit more low hanging fruit, then, you know, it's, it can actually be a way of a mind frame for you to get started with this.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, no, that's really, really good. I like that. I mean, you talk about the goals for building content. What are some of the goals that I should be thinking about? Or how do I figure out what the goals are of my content,

Xenia Muntean

There is a huge list of all that you can choose from, when it comes to social really, like a lot of them, it can be really about increasing brand awareness. And I mean, I can go through all the goals, but at the same time, we need to think that some of the goals are better, depending on the stage of your business, or a better fit for you, depending on where you're with your business, right. So it can be brand awareness, so more and more people to discover your Lego business, or to discover, you know, the advice that you have to give us a medical professional, it can be to drive traffic to your website. Really, that's you know, that's what you want to see, you know, what you want to do, like you want people to discover your website and the content that you have on your website. And those two are different goals, different type of content that you need to build, it can be about generating new leads, right. So maybe, maybe you have a particular e-book or a particular something, you know, paperwork, let's say you have like a piece of content, how to build your own Legos or something like that. And you want people to download that, again, that's a different type of content that you're building for, for social in different ways of measuring the success of that particular goal. It can be strictly growing revenue, right? Like, you can actually build social and build content strictly for generating revenue. And if that's the goal, then you need to measure organic social media and not just ads, based on this goal. It can be maybe engagement, maybe that's, you know, the way you want to build your brand, right? You want to build engagement with your audience. So you want you might want to look at, you know, other types of metrics, like comments and shares and that type of thing, you know, are people distributing? Are they engaging with your content, and so on, you might want to build the community. So you might want to go into slack groups or Facebook groups or other types of you know, LinkedIn groups, depending on what platform you know, works best, you. So you might want to build like a community a fan base, around the products that you're selling.

Matt Edmundson

Do you think, if you're an eCommerce business, right, and you, you're, you're let's say you're starting out, or you're a new business, I think if you're established this the different parameters, but if you're starting out, so let's take my doctor friend, she's starting out, does she does she have... Is it sensible to do something and all of these things that you've mentioned all of these different goals? Or do you do pick like one or two of the key ones?

Xenia Muntean

I think you should definitely pick, definitely pick one or two goals and stick by them. Again, start simple. Just pick, you know, a few goals and maybe one channel, I would say if you're just starting out and if the problem that you're struggling with is the fact that it's overwhelming and you don't know what to do with it. The focus is extremely important and this type of situation, so just pick one channel, let's say she's gonna pick Instagram, right? The doctor, she's gonna pick her Instagram and she wants to make potentially, let's say not brand awareness because she's just starting it out. Maybe engagement right.. So she wants to have a small base of people, like not huge awareness but very engaged like she wants to really help out to give advice and talk about things that matter. And have, you know, not that many followers, but very engaged ones. So, you know, that's maybe one more goal, right, like, potentially drive traffic to some service or book that she has. So those two types of goals and one channel, I think that's kind of the type of setup that I would go for. That's just an example, in her case, but I wouldn't go with like the entire list. Because, again, focus is extremely crucial when you're just starting out, like in time, maybe a couple of years, if this works out and proves like, you know, social proves is a good strategy for you maybe develop like this entire set of goals and key results to follow. But in the beginning, like, keep it simple.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, that's, I think that's really important. Because so many times I see people or meet people, and they're just, I think it's, there's so much overwhelm, that nothing actually gets done. They do the opposite. And people spread themselves too thin. So they'll do one post on Instagram, something maybe on Facebook, I've now got to do TikTok, I've still got to think about Snapchat, how do I do you know what I mean, there's LinkedIn as well, so I'm like, I'm spreading myself across all of these platforms. But what you're saying is, especially at the beginning, when you're starting out, or when resources are tight, focus in on one platform, one or two goals that you're trying to do on that platform, possibly engagement and or driving traffic to your website, and just hit those things really well. Right? Yeah, spread it out. I think I think that's brilliant.

Xenia Muntean

100%. This is called decision paralysis, when you have too many options and too many things to try and do and you just don't do any of that. Because it's like, which How do I start? Which ones do I do? And you're just paralysed. And you're freezing? Because you know, you don't know how to start. But if you cut it down and make it short, then you know, there's just two types of goals, just one channel, it's much easier to get started.

Matt Edmundson

What do you think then? about this idea of outsourcing content? So I was having a conversation with a couple of guys last night, no, no, two nights, whenever it was, a couple of nights ago, we were around the house, we're watching football, and it's just guys talking about football. And one of the things that came up was this revelation in the UK, that a number of the high profile football players don't do anything on social media, they pay somebody, you know, a couple of grand a month to in effect, be them on social media, like oh, I, you know, I thought this game was brilliant, or what do you know what I mean, there's, there's so there's it's not even, it's not even disguised in ways. I mean, it's totally disguised. It's kind of like, I've outsourced it, but I've outsourced in such a way that when you put it on there, you're doing it as if you're me. And I thought it was a really interesting conversation about how different people thought about this. And I just wondered what you think about outsourcing content creation or outsourcing your social media?

Xenia Muntean

Or what was the opinion of the people that didn't agree that thing that you know, this is isn't a good idea? Because I think it's a good idea.

Matt Edmundson

it's an interesting one, because I can see it from both people's point of view. I'm like, it makes sense to outsource social media, at least certain aspects of it to me. I think that I think for me, the thing that the footballers shouldn't have done is pretended that the outsource media was then there needed to be some kind of integrity into this.

Xenia Muntean

A disclaimer for the for the audience.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah. Because I think people follow it when you especially if you're a celebrity, and people are following you along, they feel like they they're involved with you, they want to be involved with you. And if you're having if you're paying a guy over there to pretend to be you. Well, it's a bit weird, isn't it? And so I think people felt a bit let down by it, if that makes sense.

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, I understand what you mean. I look at it. Like, you know, how when people are writing books, they have guest writers. Not guest writers. Sorry, Ghost, right. Yes. writers. So it is similar. In a way though, you're right that with ghost writers, there is a disclaimer on the book somewhere while what, you know, social media, there's not necessarily a disclaimer, there is a question of integrity. But at the same time, I don't think I mean, I'm pretty sure that there are levels of approval there. Like the person that is actually managing the social media channel isn't posting whatever they want. They are like, closely following them, showing them all the tweets, all the content and getting you know and Okay, they're just the ones in charge of like publishing and like writing it, putting it in writing. You know, choosing the words nicely, but I think the thoughts and the opinions, it does reflect, and you know, in some way, the thoughts and the opinions of football players, it is just, there's a degree of distance. You know, there's an intermediary between I think there's no other way for them to do it. I don't think they can be on social like all the time. So I think, you know, having follow them and write those tweets for them, and just, you know, showing them the tweets at a glance so that they can approve it is kind of the most manageable way for them. But I don't think it's like, a different person. Think it through them? In a way it should at least?

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, no, very good. So um, so we've got, we've got our goals, we've got a plan and our aim. So that the next thing that I see a lot, and I wondered what your your thoughts are on this, and I see this a lot, eCommerce websites just literally posting content, that is their product. And it's like, it's, it might be their product, and in what I would call a lifestyle shot, so it's not just my product with a white background, I've put it on, you know, a piece of wood with some basil or do you know what I mean, a pearl necklace next to it or something to give it a bit more of a lifestyle shot. And I think that's all getting a bit dull and boring now, but I see it a lot, right, that that whole kind of thing. So how do we how do we think about content? That is that sort of takes it beyond just photographing my product from a really nice angle?

Xenia Muntean

Right? I agree. And I think you know, let's say that you're, you're selling, I don't know, agendas, diaries, notebooks, right? Let's take this example for, for this particular topic, let's say that you're, you know, selling agendas, notebooks. So you could just have photos, like you mentioned, you know, with this agenda, and like different circumstances and different environments, like a cup of coffee, and those, those typical photos, and it can be just about the product, you definitely need those types of posts and those types of content, it can't be just that. But first of all, you need to think about what's called in the industry content pillars, so you need to identify what those pillars are for your brand. So yes, of course, one pillar is the product itself, again, talk about you need to sell the product, you need people to be aware of it. But then what are some other potential topics that you can talk about? That make sense that, you know, there's they're related somehow with the product, but it's not directly about the product, right? Like, if you're selling agendas, and you know, notebooks, then maybe it's about efficiency? Or maybe it's about mindfulness, or maybe it's about being organised and life productivity, right. And maybe it's about resolutions, right? new year resolutions, and that kind of stuff. So you need to build those pillars, or maybe it's about maybe your your agenda is like some very echo type of thing. And you want to you know, talk about the planet and climate change. So maybe that's one topic, but you need to find what are those content, pillars, the corner, the cornerstones of, of your brand, and you need to reflect them in your content. So it's not just the product. But it's also kind of like, the values or the topics that relate to your product.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, that's, I was just about to say that actually, because listening to you talk, you're talking about these content pillars, and in my head, I'm thinking, Well, how do I determine what these content pillars should be? And if I if I listened to what you said, the first type of content pillar was, what kind of problems does your product solve? How can it be used do you know what I mean? So mindfulness, journaling, all that sort of thing makes sense for that type of product, so we can deep dive into that and help you do that better? Which puts your product at the centre of it I like that that's clever. It's I'm reminded of that, I can't remember who said it, the ad agency that said, you know, talking about selling drill bits, that you know, the metal things you put in a drill to drill a hole. And the you know, everyone's talking about this drill bit. You know how to sell it, you know, the curvature of it, and blah, blah, blah. And one fella finally stood and said, Listen, people don't buy the drill bit. They buy the hole. Yeah, it's it's the fundamentals of there's a reason for that hole. Maybe it's to put a picture up of their loved one. So let's think and talk about that. And, and it's that kind of understanding what your product is that that problem to solve. We can talk about that. But the second thing you mentioned there, which I thought was great was the ecos side of things, which would be more your brand values? Yes. So this is what we stand for, we stand for, say sustainability. So we can talk about that we can use our platform to promote values and connect, and that's I think that's really helpful. Because what you're doing there is you're building that community, that tribe of people with similar values, which is what you want,

Xenia Muntean

Right? Or maybe it's social responsibility, right? Maybe we're doing, you know, crafting this notebooks, it's handmade, and, you know, maybe you're employing, you know, your company's employing a very diverse range of people. Maybe it's diversity, right, or social responsibility. So it's, yeah, it's the values. And then it's the solutions as a response to the type of problems that you're solving the benefits of the product that need to be reflected in some way. And then there's the third, a third type I would say, of, of content, which is events, so events that matter to you, like, just look at the calendar of holidays and events across the year, and you find, you know, events that are relevant, maybe like sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, all of those, and you need to build content, like promotions, it's usually discounts, promotions, that type of thing, or edge sales, or other type of events, right? Maybe it's Children's Day, or Mother's Day, and you build content around how this product. So use cases, that's the third type of content use cases, how can the product be used and what type of use cases can be used or for children to just doodle, and then you know, write stuff or for Mother's Day, so you can give her something? So she can, you know, write memories or whatever. So it's really the benefits. And then it's the brand values. And the last one that I can think right now is use cases, how are people yet and tied the calendar of events.

Matt Edmundson

That's really powerful. And again, just to draw out something that you said that I'm picturing a young girl doodling in her journal, mainly because that's what my daughter does, right? She just doodles just all day long, usually on her arm. But if I can give her a notepad, then great. So she doodles away. And actually what you're creating them with social media, in this content, you're talking about the use cases, you're talking about the problems you're solving, you're talking about the values, you can actually do that in a way, which is quite emotional, can't you you're actually appealing to people on an emotional level. So rather than just saying, just right in the phrase, you know, great for my 14 year old daughter to doddle in. As soon as I introduce into that content, a picture, or a video of her doing something, even with some nice music in the background. Now I'm evoking emotions in people, which were never really able to do that well before. But actually, social media gives you the opportunity to do that, right?

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. 100%. I think social media gives you the opportunity to send those types of emotional messages and build that type of emotional messages, but also crowdsource them from your own customers from your own users. And that is very powerful, because it's very authentic. So you might have, you know, you might be able to crowdsource content from your own customers with you know, their own kids to the lake and using the journal, or when they're gifting that particular journal to someone that is, you know, someone dear, and you can actually reuse that content. So user generated content that you can, that is extremely powerful, because it's authentic, it's real. And it's very emotional, most of the times so you can actually put it out there.

Matt Edmundson

That's really cool. So I understand what my goals are. I understand, you know, that I need to think about these different pillars of content that I, I now want to go and create. How do I, how do I plan this, right? Because I'm thinking, I'm thinking again, back to my doctor friend, she's like, oh, she could come up with an idea for, say, three or four posts. But when you're talking, well hang on a minute, let's do 365. How do we start to plan? How do we start to build that out?

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, that is probably one of the challenges that every everyone that is dealing with social media and content is struggling with just the planning and the organising of the content. So you need you need a calendar. That's kind of the solution. You need a calendar to plan all your content, it's called editorial calendars are Content calendars or social media calendars. And it's you can I'm saying a calendar and not the list or like a document. Because you need to see content at a glance that is very important, you need to see you know, how your month or how your week looks like. So calendar gives you that opportunity while a list, it's not, it doesn't give you that bird's eye view on the content. So that's, you know, what's used in the industry, just a social media calendar. And I'm not talking like Google Calendar and that type of thing. It's more like a table, where you can see all the content mapped out and all the posts, so people are using things like spreadsheets for that, right, so like, spreadsheet, or they can organise it. And you know, they can just do it themselves, where there are tools like Planable, and some other tools out there that are doing they're helping you with the planning and visualising of the content. Spreadsheets might be good, if you're just starting out and you need something, you know, to do it yourself. The tools really help you and become much more powerful when you're committed to doing social, just because for example, in our case, we show you how your content is going to look like so you get previews of the content. So you have confidence that your content is going to look good on social media before it actually go goes live. So you can check how it's gonna look like. And you have that peace of mind. And also, it's very visual, so you have a lot of context of how everything is gonna is gonna look like it's really easy to arrange, drag and dropping stuff, as compared to a spreadsheet, where it's, you have to do a lot of copy pasting. And also most of the tools, like the professional tools like Planable ourselves, we do the publishing as well, we do the automatic publishing, which is probably one of the biggest pains, that people in dealing with social media are struggling, you know, having to manually post content every single day and remember to do that is very, very hard. And, you know, a lot of time is being wasted on that. So if you get to use a calendar professional calendar tool, it usually has auto scheduling or publishing incorporated in it. But yeah, conceptually, you know, no matter if you're using a spreadsheet, or if you're using a social media tool, in theory, what you need is basically a few columns, right? A few criteria is you need a column, like let's say, if you're using a spreadsheet, do you need a column for copy the caption, you know, what are you gonna say you need you need a column for the image D acid, the visual, the creative itself? What are you gonna, you know, what's going to visit the link? Is it an image? Is it the GIF or video? Was it you need to have their you know, when are you going to publish this? What is the very important, what is the content pillar. And categorising that kind of assigning this to a content pillar is very, very important, because in the end, you're going to have this overview of what are you talking about the most? Are there specific content pillars that are, you know, you're not talking too much about them, they're very low on your priority list, should they be low on their priority, maybe they should, maybe you're supposed to be talking a lot more about those things. So it gives you a glance of how you can redistribute and rebalance the content. So you are you know, on top of every value every benefit every solution, every use case, that matters to you. So yeah, it gives you this overview, and we do that with with a feature that's called labels. So you're basically able to label every single post that you're creating to specific campaign or product or content pillar that that we've been talking about. And it gives you this overview of how your next month or how your next week looks like and yeah, that's kind of you know, the the gist of it and there's also you know, you can leave comments and you know, notes on that particular post so you can, you know, remember but the calendar is the easiest solution for people to do plan content because first of all, it shows you your weak spots. Like I mentioned it, you know, it really gives you an incentive to create content because you can see you know, the weeks where you're you know, your low on content and the you know, the bird's eye view is amazing and the content also the calendar. A lot of people are saying that a calendar could make your brand lose real time marketing opportunities, which I don't like a calendar, a content calendar, an editorial calendar is supposed to be there to support you and your ongoing media efforts. But that doesn't matter doesn't mean that you shouldn't look out for real time, you know, like the Seaspiracy, what is it Seaspiracy? Yes, this Seaspiracy documentary, right? Like, you might have your content plan for the next two months. And then Netflix as it launches a Seaspiracy, and you have to talk about it, it matters to brand. So you go in there and you create some other content, and then drag and drop all your other content in the next month. So you know, calendar gives you that type of efficiency and productivity and that type of flexibility with the content that you're creating.

Matt Edmundson

So a content calendar is a great way to plan your content, it's your fall back, this is the default, what we're going to do in the absence of something that is more pressing and urgent, so you know, you've got something out there all the time.

Xenia Muntean

Exactly, you've got something there all the time. And whenever something else comes up, you can go on in there and just, you know, create a series of posts around that particular topic and schedule them again, plan them, we could then make sure that make sure that there's no other comment or content that, you know, collides, maybe with the particular content that you've just added, right. And maybe you know, the Seaspiracy or so you want to create content about the Seaspiracy thing, documentary. So you're adding, you know, all of this content and then looking at the calendar, you realise, whoa, I've had previous content that was about this particular value, brand value. And it seems like too much, I'm talking only about this, like, let me drag and drop those things for a couple of months later on, because I don't want to talking only about that thing. And account gives you that type of overview.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, that's really cool. And so I guess, one of my, again, listening to you talk and I, I, I'm thinking that, like, I get that I can use tools to help me. Yeah, how much time do you spend on social media? Um, I'm just curious, you know, how much time should people be allotting to this?

Xenia Muntean

Wow, it's a tough question, because it really depends. If you haven't been doing this, like, if you're running a business, and have been running this business of yours successfully, and you haven't been doing social media, and you're just starting out, probably not a lot, because it's an experiment, right? It's just an experiment, you want to see if it works, it needs to be a decent amount of time, so that you can consider the experiment a valid one. But at the same time, if you validated the experiment, and it seems like, you know, it helps with your business goals, then you should probably allocate a bigger chunk of time to it depends how much the you know, social media is a focus to your business, and how much it actually helps you with your business goals in the end. So it really depends, but you need to validate it first.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, that's very, very good. Just have a go see what happens and then figure it out. It's there's no silver bullet, there's no right or wrong answer. Just do what makes sense for you. And your business, I think is is, is is the right thing there. So I mean, that's really, really helpful stuff Xenia and I guess, you know, I'm aware of time, I want to be respectful of everyone's time. I guess my closing question is this, you know, you get to see a lot of content that people are putting out, obviously, with your platform and system, what sort of content is working well, at the moment?

Xenia Muntean

Hmm, that's a good one. I think what I'm seeing right now is the authentic type of content that we talked a little bit about earlier. And it doesn't necessarily need to be user generated. Some of it is user generated. Some of it is actually purposely designed as though it is user generated, like I saw an ad on TikTok from a t-shirt producer an e commerce something that was selling this type of sequin t-shirts with like things and you could like do stuff with it intricate designs with that, and it was someone a gifting that t-shirt to someone else and their reaction. And I'm pretty sure it was like designed on purpose, right? It was actors, all of that, but it felt like it was real, real TikTok that someone else did. It had humour in it. It was a authentic. So I see more and more brands produce. And I think the pandemic changed this a little bit. Because in the beginning, you know, people couldn't go to studios and shoot and film, complicated videos, right. So they were just doing it at home with their iPhones. And it lowered the, the standard in a good way, it lowered the standard for what brands need to produce this content. And I see, you know, more and more brands doing this. And I personally enjoy it. I like it, I think it's a nice touch it It feels like it's coming from humans. And it is, you know, because there's people behind that brand. So you can actually see the personality of the brand a bit more.

Matt Edmundson

That's fascinating. That's really good. So the authentic kind of content, the user generated content, we've definitely been talking a lot more recently about humour, and bringing out humour a lot more in social media.

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, it works. It depends on what brand you are. I mean, it can work for any brand. Really. In the end, if it's a small business. It comes it's, you know, do the founders incorporate this value in? Does it resonate with them? Because, you know, it's when it's a small business, it's very founder, founder driven. Is that something that you're personally comfortable with? Does it make sense to your industry? Don't look at the competition, too much like with this type of stuff? If you know other brands in your industry or aren't doing it, that doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't? Yeah, I think it'll work for almost any brand. Really?

Matt Edmundson

Yeah. No, that's fantastic. That's fantastic. Listen, thank you so much for your time, Xenia, I honestly could talk about this all day. And time just disappears in the blink of an eye, doesn't it? And I find this stuff absolutely fascinating, because I get a million good ideas in my head. And as regular listeners of the show know, once we have this conversation, the next day, we have conversations on our team, about how we can improve the stuff that we learned. So we're going to have some social media conversations this week.

Xenia Muntean

Amazing.

Matt Edmundson

No, be good. So thank you. Now, let's I mentioned at the start of the show, and you've mentioned it this platform you've got called Planable, which helps with the content calendar you talked about and do all that sort of stuff. And we are gonna offer our listeners and our viewers, a very, you've got a special offer, which is fantastic. So if anybody is interested in the Planable platform, just you can see the web address on the screen. If you're looking at the video, head on over to Planable.io. And use the code ecomm30 e c o m m 30. And you will get 30% off for three months of playable. So go ahead, try it. It is a fantastic platform. And it will really help you with with just getting out there on social media. Even if you're just starting out. It's worth having something like that just for the calendar tool just to map things out like Xenia talked about. Super helpful, highly recommend it. Definitely go and do that. Listen, Xenia, how do people reach you? How do people get hold of you if they want to connect?

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, 100%. I hang out on LinkedIn the most. So just send me a connection request. Let me know that you heard me on this podcast with Matt and yeah, I'd love to chat with you.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, yeah. LinkedIn. How are you finding it? I mean, LinkedIn is one of these really interesting social media platforms. It's made a huge comeback, I think, in the last 12 to 18 months.

Xenia Muntean

I know I'm hearing that they're reviving their groups as well, which were really dead in the past. So I'm excited to see you know what they're coming up with, as well.

Matt Edmundson

Yeah, yeah. Watch this space. Maybe we should do a show on LinkedIn one day. Talk about that, because it's just fascinating to me how it's totally changed in the last 12 to 18 months. But um, yeah, so hang out, I just head on over to LinkedIn. And I guess if we just search your name, because it's not what you'd call a common name here in the UK? We'll find you.

Xenia Muntean

Yeah, pretty sure. I'm probably the only one on LinkedIn with this name.

Matt Edmundson

That gives you you know, kind of, it's better than being John Smith I suppose where there's 20 thousand.

Xenia Muntean

I agree.

Matt Edmundson

But no, that's cool. Of course, we will link to Xenia and her LinkedIn profile and to Planable in the show notes which you can get at eCommercepodcast.net/65. We will also put on the show notes the coupon if you are interested in using Planable to get your 30% off. Do check that out. But Xenia listen for me a big massive. Thank you. Thank you for being on the show. Thanks for taking the time to be with us. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Xenia Muntean

I had a blast. Thank you so much, Matt.

Matt Edmundson

No problem. Thank you so much. Wow wasn't Xenia brilliant there. Now, what are you going to do right as a result of that conversation? How are you going to change your social media? What are you going to start to implement, because if I here's the thing, right? Here's the learning guys. If we don't take action now, we just don't take action. You all know what I'm talking about, right? So one or two key things that you can do as a result of listening to that podcast start to implement them now, because that's what makes the difference. You know, I don't joke when I say that we have conversations in our team. The next day after that get to interview these great guests, keeps me on my toes keeps us all having these conversations. What can we do? What can we implement? And what can we change? Very, very useful stuff there from Xenia. So do make sure you head on over to the podcast. If you're watching the video, you can see the link at the bottom, and the eCommercepodcast.net/65, get the notes, get the transcript, and do check out their platform. You'll be pleased if you do. And also while you're the website, make sure you let us know your name and email, we'll let you know whenever we're live streaming and whenever new podcasts have gone out. We'll send you that content. No spam, just good eCommerce content. Make sure you check it out. Of course, subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcast from whether it's Apple or Spotify, you find it there because why would you not write a great show? So to come along? If you've enjoyed today's show, do give us a rating. We would love to hear from you and just hear what you got to say what can we do? What can we improve? Send in your suggestions? I might regret saying that but genuinely do I'm really interested to hear what you got to say. But I think for me, that is everything for this week. We'll be back again next week with another amazing guest on the eCommerce podcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. If you watch the video on YouTube or Facebook, or if you join in on the live stream, really appreciate you being with us and part of this journey. I wish you every success with your ecommerce business. And I'll be back again very, very soon. Bye for now.