For this interview, I chose Carley Gahm as a Subject Matter Expert. Carley currently works for Doc Spartan (a shark tank company) and 3rd & Court (a local t-shirt company). These businesses rely heavily on social media, which Carley coordinates. She knows much more than I do in this area, which is why I selected her.
Social Media Subject Matter Expert – Carley Gahm
- How do you stay creative when curating social media posts? What are some things that you look toward for inspiration?
- I follow a few other people/brands that I think create solid content and build my ideas from that. Other times I can see a product and think of things related and how they work together. (ie: a summer tshirt – style it with denim shorts and sunglasses) I also look at Pinterest a lot and certain things I see will spark some creativity as far as angles, color palette, etc.
- What are your current marketing abilities, and of those, which is your favorite? (ex. Video, copy writing, photography, etc)
- I would say the top two are video and photography. Writing copy to a specific audience is not my strong suit! I like photography the best because I love the photo editing process, and seeing your photo in a post translate to a sale. With that said, I do like editing videos as well because you can take raw footage and make it into whatever you want with things like music, effects, etc.
- Do you see yourself continuing to expand your marketing abilities? If so, what next?
- Yes- I think a crucial piece to have in your repertoire is paid ads on Facebook. If you know (and are competent) enough to target to a very specific audience, I can only assume your sales will only grow. This is something I don’t currently do but would like to try and see if I like it.
- What are some tools that you would recommend to an entrepreneur trying to produce their own marketing material, rather than outsourcing?
- I would recommend listening to Gary Vee’s Podcast. He has been in the game for a long time and has a LOT of knowledge and input that is useful. (and it’s all FREE!) I would also recommend following people that inspire you whether that be on Instagram or YouTube. I am able to learn a lot about my own style and also what works for that person, and a lot of time it translates!
- With your experience at Doc Spartan, what would you say has been the most valuable takeaway?
- I’m not sure this is the MOST valuable, but it’s something I keep in mind every day- and that is consistency is key! And not in a way where you are scrambling to make a post and just throw something together every day just to say you post every day. I mean planning content days/weeks/months ahead and making it a quality post.
- Do you have any specific marketing planning strategies before you execute your material?
- I keep in mind what/if we have any sales that week and create content around that. I also think to myself ‘what is the point of this post? What am I trying to accomplish by showing people this?’ and that could be from an educational post, to a promo, or to just show that it is people that run the account, not robots.
- What has been your favorite project to date and why?
- I have two that immediately come to mind- first is our 4th of July commercial starring Dale and Renee. We went all around Portsmouth (and Kentucky) just filming shenanigans. It was a great day and really fun to edit! Another one was our Christmas content this past year. Aubrey and I spent the morning buying Christmas props and decorations to place with our product and I had a lot of fun intertwining the Christmas spirit with whatever we were selling at the time.
- What do you feel is the biggest challenge with marketing? (ex. Staying creative, defining target market, etc)
- For me personally the biggest challenge is writing a caption. But in general, a hard thing is to be able to tell what works and what doesn’t work within your page. If you are posting content that isn’t getting engagement or not producing website clicks, it’s hard to navigate what went wrong and what you could change for the future.
