Stepping Out Of Our Comfort Zone: Chatting with Jon Wright on BBC Radio Suffolk

In yesterday’s social media post we talked about stepping out of our comfort zones. And last night, we did just that and chatted with Jon Wright on BBC Radio Suffolk about all things social media. And do you know what? It was fun! Here is the transcript from the show:

Jon: Good evening, it's Jon Wright here on BBC Radio Suffolk.  If you follow me on social media, I'm @JournoJon on Twitter and on Instagram. I did sign up for TikTok, but that's a little bit beyond me so let's just stick to those two.  And like me, you might feel that they are interesting and useful places to get lots of news and opinions and maybe share things that you'd like to with your family, but also a little bit intimidating.  And there's a nagging fear at the back of your mind that you're getting it horribly wrong, either by saying the wrong thing or missing out or not using it right. And I'm sure there are lots and lots of people who are still slightly bewildered by it.

So, as we move more and more online during this third lockdown I thought I would bring you some people who know what they're talking about.

Danielle Young is on the line.  Hi Danielle.

Danielle: Hi Jon, how are you?

Jon: I'm very good.  And we've got Lara Cooper on the line as well.  Hi Lara.

Lara: Hi Jon, how are you?

Jon: I'm good. And together, you are youngandcooper.com

Lara: We are.

Jon: And you come to the rescue of people, for what problems do people come to you with Danielle?

Danielle: Well recently we've had a lot of people who have joined social media during, perhaps the first lockdown, and they started posting and then suddenly they're faced with that horrible feeling where they need to do a post that day and they just don't know what to talk about. And it's because they just don't have a strategy in place so they get in touch with us, and we work with them to look at who their target audience is and work on a strategy and give them tips on just how to make this process a lot easier.

Jon: So there'll be people Lara who, you know, this is still kind of new territory. And yet, their children or their grandchildren are doing this all of the time and that can be even more disconcerting can’t it and you feel that you don't want to ask a stupid question.

Lara: No, and I think a lot of people just feel like you've said.  They feel totally overwhelmed, and they just don't really know where to begin. So, our advice would really be to not try and do all of the platforms and spread yourself thinly and not actually achieve anything or understand anything but maybe focus just on one or two, and just start off with the basics and kind of have a bit of fun, really, and play around with it, nothing's going to break.

Jon: Well, you say nothing's going to break but what if you post the wrong thing or you post something that gets retweeted out of context and suddenly everyone hates you?

Lara: Well everything can be deleted. But I think what you do need to think about is, if you are nervous about posting anything, is to actually go back, like Danielle's just mentioned, and think about who your audience is and put yourself in their shoes and imagine yourself at a party and what would what would you speak about at the party and I think you'll find that you if you're thinking about your audience, you're less likely to offend.

Jon: Okay, so that's interesting. Danielle, this idea of not going on all of the platforms, you need to find out where the people who buy your stuff or join your groups or whatever it is that that you are trying to promote, where they go and it might be that they only live on Facebook and all these other things are just words to them and so therefore there's no point in stressing out trying to get a Twitter strategy if no one is going to listen to you on it.

Danielle: Yes, I mean if you can really get to grips with who is your ideal audience, who is that you really want buying your products. And once you kind of get to grips with that you can work out what platform they're on.  And you're absolutely right, if they're only on Facebook, there's no point in spending all your time coming up with content for Twitter or Instagram.

So definitely have a think about which platform, it is to be on. And once you know who your target audience is, it helps with your tone of voice, and also helps with, like Lara said, coming up with ideas of what to talk to them about.  So if you can imagine that you're at a party, it's not all about selling your products.  Every post isn't about just talking about the products you're selling.  Because if you went to a party and someone just talked about themselves, all the time, it would be really boring. It's about what other conversation topics do you have in common with your target audience and that's kind of where your content strategy will come from as well.

Jon: So Lara, I like to scroll through Instagram because you know that's picture lead. So there's lots and lots of lovely images and there are various, for different reasons, cake shops and book shops that I follow, and they have the advantage of having quite aesthetic products, so you can post lots of pictures of nice cakes or freshly baked scones and, you know, even if I might not go and buy any today that's kind of giving that association. And I was thinking well this is this is really hard for other businesses.

And then I noticed a plumber on Instagram, a Suffolk plumber, and the kind of thing I've just done this boiler installation and then getting quite passionate about it, but the way the pictures come across, kind of these really lovely symmetrical pipe work coming out of metal boxes on walls.  That actually looked quite startling as well, quite engaging.  So I guess you shouldn't discount that whatever it is that you do, someone probably will find that interesting if you present it well.

Lara: Yes, totally I mean it's very much an image led platform, and the images tend to be really really beautiful and quite often they're edited.  But I think with  a bit of creative thinking, most businesses can put themselves out there onto Instagram.  And I think you have to kind of think not just about what your content is in terms of what your business is, but think a bit more out of the box in terms of perhaps you working behind the scenes or even things, like your favourite cup of coffee.  You've got tools on Instagram, like Stories and Reels.  Stories is only there for 24 hours, but it's a great opportunity to provide content from behind the scenes. And so there's so much more to it than just making something that's really pretty on your grids. You could also use inspirational quotes that trigger something for you personally but that might resonate with your audience.

Jon: I mean, you say there about Stories.  So I don't fully understand Instagram yet and how to do one and not the other but then Twitter started adding little things at the top, fleets or whatever, encouraging me to do fleeting tweets rather than just tweety tweets and they just go and change it and upgrade it.

Lara: They never want you to leave their platform.  So obviously something like Twitter is a hub itself, whereas Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same group, and they just don't want you to leave the platform so they're constantly rolling out new tricks and new things for you to be involved in.

Something like Stories is quick, it’s fast firing, and great for small businesses because it's cheap, it doesn't have to be polished and over produced, it can be really off the cuff.  And it disappears in 24 hours, but you can carry on using it and put that on your bio so it's a really, really, really brilliant tool for small businesses.

Jon: So you guys were friends and you formed your business at the end of 2019. So a couple of months before a global pandemic hit. How did that go Danielle?

Danielle: Yes, we’ve been quite busy actually.  To our earlier point, a lot of people got on social media during the first lockdown. And then just very quickly kind of got stuck and needed some help.  And we love working with small businesses and entrepreneurs.  And just by spending just a small amount of time with us, we've watched a lot of our clients just make a few tweaks here and there, and it really makes such a difference in their reach and getting their brand out there.

So we’ve really enjoyed that and also last year we were involved in the Ed Sheeran Made In Suffolk Legacy Auction as well. So we were very busy working on that with the GeeWizz Charity. 

So things have actually been quite busy.

Jon: So I'm @JournoJon on Twitter and Instagram.  Have you had a glance at what I've posted?

Lara:  Yes.  

Jon: Lara, am I interesting enough?

Lara: I think there's room for improvement on Instagram, particularly.
I think you need to have a look at your bio because that's the first place that you're going to be discovered on if somebody is looking. If someone now listening to this conversation is going to search for you, they're going to go straight onto your bio.

Jon: My bio says Jon Wright, some evenings on BBC Radio Suffolk, and my email address is that not catchy enough?

Lara: Sure but I think you need to have highlights on there. So, those are when you've taken your Stories and you've run with them you could put on there.  You know, highlights of me at work, highlights of me at home, and you'd have all those different buttons so people can go back in time and see what you've posted. And then, you've got more opportunity on there to talk a bit more about yourself and what you do and you can link in to your website or to BBC’s website.

Jon: Okay, I will ask them about that.  That makes me sound tired already, and on Twitter, I use it for looking, not necessarily for talking is that allowed, Danielle?

Danielle: Absolutely. You can use social media platforms, the way that it works for you.  So perhaps Instagram is where you do more of your messaging and maybe Twitter's kind of where you lurk in the background and find out all the information. So, you can use the social media platforms, the way that you want.

But I have to say one of the big things that Lara and I go on about is that you always need to put yourself on your Instagram because people do business with people.  And people are so afraid of having their photos on their social media platforms so I'm going to give you a big gold star because you've got lots of lovely pictures of yourself on your Instagram and that's one of the big things that Lara and I always talk about.

Jon: Okay, against my vanity and better judgement I will I will keep going. With that, Danielle Young and Lara Cooper thank you very much for your time and expert advice this evening.  Youngandcooper.com if you want to find out more and get some pointers for your socials.