Ben Ard (00:27)
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Janelle. Janelle, welcome to the show.
Janelle Jones (00:32)
Thank you for having me, Ben. I'm super excited.
Ben Ard (00:34)
Yeah, this is going to be fun. It's going to be a good subject. I'm excited to dive in. But Janelle, before we dive into the material, let's let the audience get to know you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career.
Janelle Jones (00:45)
⁓ I'm a business marketing strategist. I've been in business for almost 15 years. I am also a tech founder. This is brand new. Don't tell me what, ask me what I'm doing. have no idea. I'm just trying things out here. That's just throwing spaghetti at a wall and see what sticks at this point. But, yeah, those are the two things that I do. help P business to market online, build a digital presence and make money.
Ben Ard (00:58)
I think all tech founders would say the same thing. ⁓
Love it. That's amazing. Janelle, I'm excited about your experience, your expertise. I'm excited about this subject. So let's dive in. Let's have a good discussion. I'm excited for it. What we're going to be talking about today for everyone listening is how creators and entrepreneurs can help build content that connects without chaos. So chaos is the word that sticks out in that sentence for me. Janelle, what do we mean by that? Like when content creators and entrepreneurs connect, how do they do it without the chaos? What are your thoughts on that?
Janelle Jones (01:39)
I don't know if that's possible. At least in all these years, I haven't found the secret sauce yet. You just kind of create a system and that's what we're going to be talking about. But I feel like there's always going to be some level of chaos as an entrepreneur, as a content creator. There's going to be some level that it's just how do you manage these things?
Ben Ard (01:57)
I love that. I love the idea of not just saying, you can eliminate the chaos. You can get rid of it. It's like, no, just embrace it. There's going to be the chaos. It's OK. So when we talk about maybe ways that we can embrace the chaos and build a system, what does sustainable content creation look like? How do you build a system for this kind of content creation?
Janelle Jones (02:01)
Yeah.
Yes, so many times we're on social media and they're like, you post every day three times a day. You're going to get, no, it's just not, it's not sustainable. You end up burning out. So I always say, don't plan on posting every day. Post in a way that's consistent for you that you can maintain. Create a system that's maintainable for you to be able to post and know what you want your content to do. If you're in the middle of a launch, you should be have content that is selling your product.
If you're building brand awareness, then you're posting content for people to get to know you. So what do you want? What is your end goal for that content period? That's where you're to focus in on and build content towards that.
Ben Ard (02:54)
Okay, I love it. So how do you find the pace? Like, and I can imagine the analogy of like a marathon runner. If you're trying to keep someone else's pace, it's going to be tough. I clearly, if anyone watching the video, I am not a marathon runner. can tell that, but how do you find your pace? Like what have you done to find the right pace?
Janelle Jones (03:08)
Me either.
Testing it right so if I post I know if I post once a month I'm not getting any results I disappear an algorithm that doesn't work, but if I post five times a day That's overwhelming to me, I don't have the bandwidth to manage that so we keep testing like okay Let's try posting once a day, which is what has really worked really well for me is okay I'm gonna post once a day have enough time to create enough content for once a day But I would say
Learn your brand, learn your audience. How often do they want to see you? Sometimes they want to see you twice a day. I wake up in the morning, I'm sharing something. I know a content creator. She wakes up, she shares something, she writes a post. And then in the evening, she wraps it up and tells you about her day. That people are waiting for those posts for her in the evening because they know it's coming and they enjoy it. So what is your audience like to see? Find that system for your brand and continue that momentum.
Ben Ard (04:04)
I love that. So when you're finding material, the post, I feel like that's half the battle, right? To say, okay, here's the consistency. Here's my pace. Where do you find inspiration for content? I mean, obviously there's individual content creators, there's creators for businesses, things of that nature. I feel like the issue with finding consistency is actually finding the inspiration. Where do you find like ideas for content creation come from?
Janelle Jones (04:30)
so I look at other brands that are similar, like, Ooh, I'm inspired by that brand. I'm not going to copy exactly what they do, but I'm inspired by, right? So it's like, ⁓ I like that, but I need to put my own twist on it. Some people decide to just do what's trending. Like, I'm just going to keep following the trends. If this thing is trending, I'm going to do it too. ⁓ I choose to look at what other people are doing and say, okay, this looks interesting.
but let me do my own spin on it. Let me decide how this looks. What would resonate with my brand? I know people love my brand. They're moms, they're mom entrepreneurs. And they're like, I love to laugh at myself, right? Being a mom is crazy. It's so we're constantly cracking jokes. And the moms love that because our lives were hot mess moms. It's just, it is what it is. So what would resonate with your audience? Look at where people that you would aspire to be like, look at what they're doing, right? And say, okay, how can I put my own twist on this?
and bring an audience over to what based on what I'm doing.
Ben Ard (05:23)
So obviously this conversation has shifted a lot towards like personal branding and things like that for entrepreneurs and leaders. How much like of your personal life or like, how do you make it authentic and really you maybe without oversharing, how do you find and strike a balance and find those stories to tell?
Janelle Jones (05:41)
so I have in my mind, non-negotiables. These are things that I do not put on the internet streets because once you put it out there, right, you can't get it back. So I have these complete non-negotiables that I'm not sharing, but if there are things that I'm willing to share, then it's fair game, right? If I'm willing to, people love vulnerability, right? So I am constantly being vulnerable with people to a certain extent. As long as it doesn't fall into my non-negotiables bucket, it's fair game for me.
Ben Ard (06:10)
of them. And one interesting trend that we're noticing inside of like larger businesses as well, obviously like running your own business and being a business founder and a leader, you know, it's very much about the business is very synonymous with the individual posting in bigger businesses where there's a lot of employees. What we're finding is people still crave that kind of content. It's more of the behind the scenes material. It's getting to know the employees. It's getting to know people because
Janelle Jones (06:25)
Mm-hmm.
Ben Ard (06:37)
People don't want to connect with your brand. want to connect with the person. Do you find that the same? Are you posting and sharing content behind a brand name or is it really in your name where the brand is mentioned? How do you kind of balance that out?
Janelle Jones (06:51)
Well, remember I have two brands. So the marketing side of things, I'm selling myself. I am the face of the brand. People love to work with me because I'm sharing my vulnerabilities, my struggles in business and things like that. On the other side with the tech startup for kiddos, I'm sharing more about the brand. But here's the key to this. It's personifying the brand, right?
So making the brand feel like it's not a brand but more relatable person to you. like, yeah, like what you're saying with the behind the scenes, how is the brand growing? Showing the momentum of the growth. People like to feel like I was there when it started, right? Like I remember that. And making jokes to like, ⁓ do you remember that mess up that we had where everything crashed and we had to start all over again? That type of thing, right? So you want to persona.
Ben Ard (07:15)
I that.
And hopefully
nobody has to post that, but if it happens, you know, I love that.
Janelle Jones (07:37)
I could have trilled
that the other day. I didn't share it, but I could have. I might share it soon, but we definitely crashed the other day. But that's a whole other story. But that's the type of stuff that people remember and they're like, I was there when 4Kiddos crashed and Janelle told the story and I remember and look where it is now. They want to say I was there when it started.
Ben Ard (07:58)
That's so cool. So when you're looking at content creation, obviously there, you use this magic word before the experimentation, the testing. How do you know that something is resonating with the audience? Because obviously there's the frequency, there's the avoiding the burnout. How are you experimenting with a kind of content to make sure that you're finding materials that stick with your intended audience?
Janelle Jones (08:07)
Mm-hmm.
Um, so I do some clients, some content management for a client of mine and we literally just got off the call and the co the follow up call. And he was like, Hey, I'm seeing the results of your work, right? Because he's seeing people are in, when they're filling out the form, they're saying, I saw it here. I saw it here. So getting that feedback from the customers has been so helpful for him. Right. And then if you're a personal brand.
What are they commenting on? Right? What are your views going up? Have you gone viral? Those things are going to let you know that people are resonating with your content. If you see your views going up, if people are sharing it all the time, if they're reposting what you share, then those triggers are going to say, okay, they like this. I need to make more of this particular type of content.
Ben Ard (09:07)
love that. And I love the call out on people were mentioning that when they were filling out forms. I am one of the biggest advocates for self reporting attribution inside of forms. And it's one of the greatest ways, if you are active on social media, posting content, it is so hard to follow like the analytic, know, bread come trail to show that it would, you know, made an impact. Just ask people in your forums, how did you hear about us? And a lot of times they're going to say social media.
And you know the impact. And if they're not saying that, like we just barely said, test and try something new and find something creative and fun to do so you can attract your audience. Janelle. So this is kind of shifting gears a little bit on this kind of side of things. Yeah. Yeah.
Janelle Jones (09:46)
Before you do Ben, can I add one more thing for the audience?
I had a client do, and if you're trying to figure out what type of content to make, ask your audience. Create a survey, put it out there. I offer like, hey, if you answer the survey question, I'll send and I'll put you in a drawing for a gift card.
Right? People love Amazon gift cards, especially women. So if that's your audience, offer them a gift card, offer them some headphones, offer them something as a token of your appreciation for being in your community and create a survey. Ask them what they want to see more of. Why do they follow you? What are they looking for? What will they buy from you? Ask the people. The people are waiting. They're here if they're following you for a reason. So just ask them.
Ben Ard (10:25)
I love that the whole gift card incentivizing people. makes such a big difference. I mean, just today, like there's a company I absolutely love and they asked me to do like a 15 minute long survey, which I normally wouldn't do, but I a hundred percent did it because there was an incentive, but really I really loved the brand. That's why, like I wanted to, I wanted to push them in certain directions because I'm a big user of their software. So I love that interaction. Are you sending this material out on like,
Janelle Jones (10:30)
Yes.
Thank you.
Ben Ard (10:52)
social media or using emails? How are you getting these surveys out to people?
Janelle Jones (10:55)
any way that I possibly can. So I'm posting it on social media. I'm sending it out to my email list. I'm calling people on the phone like, hey, can you help me out with this? I'm trying to get this certain number. Like when building for kiddos, my coach was like, hey, you need 500 responses to see if this is a valid idea, right? So I was hitting all the moms that I possibly could like, hey, can you help me with this survey? And so it worked just pushing it out there. People, they want a prize. They want to win. So.
Ben Ard (11:22)
I love that. That's so cool. And then are you doing like the inline social media stuff or using like Google forms? Do have any preference on kind of what platforms you're using for that?
Janelle Jones (11:31)
Yeah, so for the surveys, I do use Google Forms for the surveys and just posting them out there and yeah, and then just doing a drawing for the winner.
Ben Ard (11:38)
Okay. Very cool. So to shift gears, like I was talking about before, and I don't want to take anything negative, but I am curious, are you seeing things, current trends or people online? And we don't need to mention anyone in particular, but are you seeing like people that haven't quite figured it out? Like the most common mistakes that you would maybe just recommend, Hey, get rid of this, this, and this, like these will make you feel so much better. You'll be more successful. I mean, you work with so many people.
Any like common mistakes that you think that people could really avoid to up their content game.
Janelle Jones (12:10)
Yeah, so I noticed a lot on Instagram. First of all, make sure that your full profile is filled out, right? You have a picture, you have your link in bio, you have your bio filled out. And then with the feed, people just throw anything up on that feed and it looks an absolute mess. People are very aesthetic. If you, they're visual people, especially on, if you're on Instagram. So you want to make sure that your feed looks aesthetically pleasing.
And so make sure that if you have a brand set up, a lot of people don't have a brand set up. So if you don't have a brand set up, please set one up. And if you don't know what that means, go to Canva, you can type in brand board and you can see all the different types, pick some colors, just set something up. If you don't have the budget and all that stuff. But if you have the budget hire somebody, please. So, but to get your brand colors up there and make something that is aesthetically pleasing. There's checkerboard that you can create. There's different setups that you can do on Instagram. So please set that up.
The other thing that I would say that I hate that people don't do is that they're not authentic. So I want people to be more vulnerable. They make social media this place where everything is so fake. They're doing this, they're doing that. Post your downfalls. Post what you're struggling with. A, you're going to find help. B, people are going to relate to you more. And C, you're going to connect with your community that you need.
you are going to connect with the people that are going to hire you because they're like, okay, I remember when she went through that struggle and look where she is now. Again, people want to be a part of the beginning of the story, right? So they're like, she did it. She got through. I'm struggling with that right now. Let me reach out to her.
Ben Ard (13:43)
Okay, I absolutely love that. That's amazing. Janelle, as promised, these episodes go by quick so that we can let marketers and everyone get back in their daily journeys. But Janelle, for anyone listening who wants to reach out and connect with you, how and where can they find you?
Janelle Jones (13:57)
Yes, so my main website is JanelleAJones.com. name J-A-N-E-L-L-E-A is an apple, Jones, J-O-N-E-S.com.
Ben Ard (14:04)
Love it. And we will link to the website down in the show notes below. So everyone listening, just scroll down, click on the link, connect with Janelle. Janelle, thank you so much for the time and insights today. I really do appreciate it.
Janelle Jones (14:16)
No, this has been fun. Thank you so much, Ben.
