Keeping up with social media updates and changes can feel like a full-time job, which is why we do the research for our S.O.B. Community members every week!
In this episode, we're sharing four important social media updates from the past few months that we've already discussed with our community members.
From new advertising opportunities to AI changes that could affect how customers discover your business, we're breaking down what's happening, why it matters, and what it could mean for your marketing.
Consider this your sneak peek into our weekly discussions!
Vivian (00:04) It wants you to be your own unique mm bouge bouge.
Chelsea (00:10) She's I'm gonna fistfight her. Hey everyone, welcome to the SOB Marketing Podcast, where we celebrate the SOB that you are and if you haven't figured it out yet, we mean small owned business, we don't mean SOB.
Vivian (00:24) Listen, we know that as a small business owner, you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other, I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.
Chelsea (00:43) Our commitment here at the SOB Marketing Podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, promoting your business, and then what doesn't really work.
Vivian (00:55) And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.
Chelsea (00:59) hello Vivian, I love your shirt.
Vivian (01:03) For you guys wondering what I'm wearing and why she's saying this, I'm actually wearing a shirt from what's the name of the the small business titty bats titty bats.
Chelsea (01:13) Titty bats. Titty bats. Yeah.
Vivian (01:15) Okay. They do some really cool screen printed shirts and this one today has got a possum hissing on it and it says always pissed.
Chelsea (01:24) Classic.
Vivian (01:25) It's a classic. Can I tell you how how many times I go out in public with the shirt on? I also have another one from them and
I get so many compliments on this dang shirt. I'm like, really? Everyone loves that it's like funny. It's got a little sense of humor. They love the the hissing possum graphic on it. So I love go check out, you guys. Titty bats.
Chelsea (01:49) See, I just get strange looks when I wear my titty bat shirts, but I think it's because one, I I look more intimidating than Vivian. Yes. And two, my shirts, one of them is a cat holding a knife and it says violence on it.
Vivian (02:05) They don't know what to do with that.
Chelsea (02:07) And then the other one, says it's always time for crime and there's a raccoon on it. So I think I just maybe
Vivian (02:15) Well, this is the benefit of looking wholesome but also having a sense of humor. People are like, okay, but she's so she looks so innocent. Yeah. But she's always pissed.
Chelsea (02:27) See and I wear my shirt and they're like, let's turn around. That's
Vivian (02:30) You just look nefarious.
Chelsea (02:33) a good word. A plus word.
Vivian (02:35) This is actually a marketing podcast, you guys. You didn't just like turn on and this is like some kind of
Chelsea (02:42) This is a small business marketing podcast. And we were shouting out a small business, okay? And actually, as of this recording, like when we're recording, tomorrow is Yalloween. Yallmart. Yep. In Columbia. So I'm hoping titty bats will be there and maybe I'll work on my RBF and I'll be more friendly so I can wear my violence shirt and no one turns around when they see me.
Vivian (03:10) They don't think they're they're gonna think they're about to get mugged.
Chelsea (03:14) I would never mug anyone. Vivian, let's talk about marketing. Today we are doing something a little different. As you all know, if you're a frequent SOB listener, we have an SOB community. And part of our SOB community is we do a Zoom call every week where we talk about marketing updates. We talk about any questions that our community members have, we talk about their marketing and give advice for that. But one of the biggest things we do is we bring marketing updates, everything going on in the marketing world, and we talk about the implications for small businesses. Now, recently there have been some really interesting marketing updates specifically with social media. And we were like, you know what, we should bring this to all of our SOBs.
Vivian (04:09) Yes.
Chelsea (04:11) S-O-Bs.
I feel like I didn't say that very well. S-O-B.
Vivian (04:15) This you guys consider this a little sneak peek of maybe some of the conversation that we have in the community calls.
Chelsea (04:23) Absolutely. This everything we're bringing, all the topics we're bringing today are things we have already discussed in our community calls, but they were just such big topics that we were like, we should tell everyone about this. Yeah. Also, Vivian, real quick, I thought you were gonna say amuse-bouche.
Vivian (04:42) I don't even know what that means. What?
Chelsea (04:45) Is it all a amuse-bouche of?
Vivian (04:49) You mean?
Chelsea (04:51) said that before like a sampler a sampler and a amuse-bouche I have never that
Vivian (04:59) Live.
Chelsea (05:00) is absolutely afraid
Vivian (05:05) never said amuse-bouche. You absolutely
Chelsea (05:08) Absolutely have said it before. I'm gonna f I'm pretty sure it was on this podcast too. I'm gonna find this clip. Is that a word? Yeah, it's a phrase. It's like a sampler. okay. I she's gaslighting me. I'm sure of it. Whatever. Let's let's go ahead. Y'all, there's no marketing hot take this week simply because, you know, we're just doing social media updates. Also wanna point out we don't only do social media updates in our Zoom calls. It's just that these were the big things that we were like, we need to bring this to everybody. And it just so happened to all be related to social media.
Vivian (05:49) Yeah, and if I could preface this conversation by saying as I've been doing this marketing thing a very, very long time. I think when I was younger, I used to feel because it was before we had Instagram, before people were using Facebook for business purposes, it felt like marketing it changed, but it felt like the time frame in which big marketing changes occurred as far as like for consumers and their behavior took a little longer. Okay. There was like a a longer window of that stuff happening. All that to say that's not the world we live in anymore. It has been interesting as a professional marketer, which Chelsea can also you know, speak to, but she's just the younger version, okay? She's fifteen years younger. And so her experience is very different because she was growing up in a time where she doesn't know marketing to be anything other than what it is today. Absolutely. and so for me it's taken me a little bit of time to get adjusted to the fact that so much changes very quickly the way people are buying has shifted very dramatically now with live shopping and all this stuff. And I just feel like that window in which these changes occur in consumer behavior is actually gonna get shorter.
Okay. yeah. Yeah. And so I want to remind you that the SOB community, it is a resource where instead of you guys having to take the time to go out there and find all of these updates or hear it from like other people, we try to do that research ahead of time, bring you the big ones that we think are gonna be super impactful to your business and also because we want you guys to jump on opportunities if they're good opportunities. So
Where do you want to start the conversation? Which social media change has happened recently, Chelsea, that you think is something small businesses should know about? Vivian
Chelsea (07:54) I love that you brought up live shopping because our first little social media update relates to lives. Okay. Specifically, Meta has expanded to allow live video ads on Instagram, and you can now boost live.
Vivian (08:13) Dreams. Okay, so explain the video ads thing to me. So that means, okay, from a Instagram user. I'm on Instagram, I'm watching somebody go live. Yes. You're telling me that now ads can appear on that live stream.
Chelsea (08:29) pop up.
Ads can appear on the live stream or you could get an ad for someone's live.
Vivian (08:38) as they're doing it.
Chelsea (08:39) Yes. So so let's say you're going through stories, you're flipping through your stories. You can get an ad because you know they interrupt your stories with ads. You can get an ad for someone's live stream. Okay. Yeah, and it says click to join. Yeah. You can do that. So you can boost your live stream or you can create an ad talking about your live stream. Or ads can appear.
during your live stream. Basically ads are gonna be everywhere now. For lives. For lives. For live streaming. They did want to make it very clear that for boosting live streams it will only run while you are live.
Vivian (09:17) Okay, so you can't boost it after the fact.
Chelsea (09:21) No, you can't boost it after the fact and directly from the article it says you can choose to boost a live video right before you go live or schedule it in advance. It's recommended that you schedule your ad at least two hours before you go live to help reduce ad delivery delays.
Vivian (09:41) Well so what is the big takeaway you think for small business owners? Why is this an important update that you think kind of that flagged yeah so
Chelsea (09:51) In our community calls, we have been increasingly talking about this change in consumer behavior and this focus on live selling. And live selling is an incredible opportunity specifically for small business owners. Vivian, can you explain just real quick what live selling is?
Vivian (10:14) So imagine TikTok, somebody decides to go live, you have a boutique, and you're like, Great, my fall collection just came in. I'm gonna go ahead and do a live stream and basically sell the product there. And so people have the opportunity to then say, like, I want outfit number one in this size, and then you get connected with them. There are tools that you could use where they make the payment right there and then literally you just collect their address and stuff and send them the info. So there's there are mere there are many variations or ways that you can do this depending on what resources you have available to you and what platforms you're using. But this is I know you guys have seen this on Facebook. Yes. A lot. There are lots of like home decor companies that are doing this now. You know, here's here's a dough bowel that we have and it's for sale and this is item number one. It's twelve ninety nine. Comment item one if you want to purchase it today.
Chelsea (11:19) Yes. Yes.
And there has been a lot of studies showing the growth of live of live shopping. I believe we've had the discussion that it's really big in like China already and that the US is slowly starting to pick up and catch up to this. So not saying that as a small business owner, you have to do live selling, but it's definitely an option. And now with Instagram including ads, that means that you can start a live stream specifically for selling your product and you can advertise it to hopefully get more eyeballs and more people joining the stream so you can sell more product.
Vivian (12:02) Yeah, let me give you a real life example of what I've seen a small business do here in Charleston, South Carolina. There is I've actually seen seen an increase of people looking for quote unquote talent. So like the small business owner does not want to be the one on camera and so
Chelsea (12:22) That's something you absolutely can do. And we've had this discussion. I don't I'm gonna be so for real, Vivian. I don't remember if we've had that discussion
Vivian (12:29) in the video marketing.
Chelsea (12:30) oh okay. In the podcast. I was gonna say is it the podcast or our Zoom calls, community calls?
Vivian (12:35) Yeah, so the real life example that I've seen is there is a small business here where it's one lady and she buys up very nice high end handbags and she turns around and like resells them. She does not want to be the one on camera anymore doing it. And so she's looking for someone to resell it. But the live shopping component has been super effective for her in growing her business. And think about it, she's not having as long as she finds the right people to be watching her video, women that have three thousand dollars that they want to spend on a you know, on a Gucci handbag, then, it pays off. cause she's not having to pay to go live.
Chelsea (13:17) Yes, I do have one caveat that I want to point out with this update. If you are an Apple user, if you have an iPhone, do not forget that Apple charges a 30% service fee if you purchase an ad on your phone.
Vivian (13:36) And if you just heard that and you're like, What? Like, I had no clue. You need to go back and listen to all of our episodes, okay? Because because we we have talked about this before. We did an entire episode when they were making this switch. Yeah. This is not something that Meta is responsible for. That is something that Apple chose to do.
Chelsea (13:59) Yea, you can bypass this easily by going on Meta on your desktop, on your laptop, on a PC and purchasing the ad that.
Vivian (14:09) Just don't do it through your phone if you have an iPhone.
Chelsea (14:11) yes, Okay. Vivian, our next social media marketing update is actually about AI.
Vivian (14:22) oh, your favorite.
Chelsea (14:23) My favorite. Specifically social media and AI SE Ranking.
Vivian (14:30) Mm-hmm.
Chelsea (14:31) they do polls surveys. It's consumer research. It's consumer research. So they analyzed a hundred thousand keywords across a range of brand niches in order to understand which sources were most commonly displayed in both Google results and AI chatbot responses. Why do we care? Because they found that for businesses it is very important to maintain a social media presence because these AI chatbots are pulling information from social media. So I have specific statistics, Vivian. What they found in their study is that social platform links appeared in sixty seven point six six that was almost a really funny number.
Vivian (15:23) Ha ha ha.
Chelsea (15:26) Sorry, sixty-seven point six six percent of Google AI overview responses have social media platform links
Vivian (15:34) And this is I wanna point something out, this is specific, that's not chat GPT, that that is specific to Google AI overview.
Chelsea (15:42) Yes, yes. Now for Google AI mode, it's thirty-two point three nine percent and for chat GPT it is eight point four percent.
Vivian (15:52) And if you think that's low, that's actually getting better because we know for a fact that Chat GPT p used to pull A LOT of reddit information, okay. They were they were sourcing a lot of their data information off of Reddit, which I don't know why you would do that because Reddit's a public forum that anybody could post practically anything.
Chelsea (16:18) that's probably why they don't you know, that was my next bullet point. That was my next update.
Vivian (16:22) Okay. ok well we can
Chelsea (16:24) they do relate to each other. So let's talk about both at the same time. So I have the speci real quick, I have the specifics. It is that Chat GPT changed their algorithm in August, and when they first made that change, Reddit's search citations fell by eighty six point four percent in four days.
Vivian (16:45) Yeah, okay. So what basically all that data to tell you, Chat GPT used to use a lot of Reddit information in their responses. They have since thought to themselves, they've wisened up you guys. They have thought to themselves, hmm, maybe we should use different kind of information.
Chelsea (17:06) Maybe we should use credible sources.
Vivian (17:08) Credible sources. And so that was something which we could get a little more into here in a second, but so they made that decision. As it relates to the reason I was bringing it up, with the eight point four percent of chat GPT answers pulled from your social media platforms, I think that number is gonna get higher. Okay. So if you're thinking that's low, just put a asterisk there and know that's gonna increase over time, okay? That's sure. That's not gonna dip and it's not gonna stay the same. It's only gonna increase. We love this for you guys.
Because it means that you get more juice out of your social media posting. Absolutely. For those of you that are just tired and you're like, Why do I have to be a content creator on top of you know running a small business? Just know that your efforts of posting and being consistent on in posting, whether that be on TikTok, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, Facebook, your information, your videos, your carousels, your posts can actually now be attributed back in responses if it's relevant to what the person is looking up.
Chelsea (18:27) This is a great example and reminder that the new phrase is not search engine optimization, it's search everywhere optimization. Yes. Because everything is pulling content from across the internet. That's right. And this is also a great reminder that there's no tricking algorithms. There's no trying to figure out what works best for this AI chatbot.
Your coal your goal and the key is creating good quality content, period point blank. Yes.
Vivian (19:00) And I'm not just saying this to plug our podcast. I'm saying we've had some really good discussions around Google, their changes, AI overview, how it works, the number Chelsea brought to you, she said social platform links appeared in sixty six sixty seven.
Chelsea (19:21) You wanted the funny number.
Vivian (19:22) Sixty seven point six six percent percent of Google AI overview responses. do we find it coincidence that Google, like what, a year or two years ago, suddenly created a Google Shorts tab yeah where short form videos started appearing. Mm, interesting that literally now they're citing over half of the stuff from social media links. Okay.
they also have given you guys now the capability to go into your Google business profile and include all of your social media links. If you have not done that, go do that. Okay, that potentially can help with this number with you showing up in that Google AI overview. make sure you add your Instagram link, your Facebook link, your YouTube link, whatever you have. There's like a whole array of them, your TikTok one.
and it's super easy. It takes like two seconds. Okay, so it's all connected.
Chelsea (20:26) It's all connected. I personally love well, do I love? maybe love's not the right word. I find it intriguing.
Vivian (20:34) Ooh.
Chelsea (20:34) That now everything.
Vivian (20:35) moosh abouche?
Chelsea (20:37) Shut up. You're so I'm gonna have to look this I am right. I'm gonna look this up.
Vivian (20:43) Okay, sorry, go ahead.
Chelsea (20:44) Amuse-bouche. No, you're not there's n I know you set you know what? Anyways.
Anyways, I find it intriguing that everything online at this point is connected, especially with search everywhere, optimization. And one of my favorite things to say for marketing is everything's connected. Because it's true. In marketing, everything is connected and all leads to one another. The synchronicity. Yes. I find amusing.
I did have one other point that I wanted to make with ChatGPT no longer citing Reddit as much. And my key takeaway for that is that these platforms, their algorithms are always changing. The best thing that you can do is to focus on creating good quality content for your target audience because there's no way to ever really know what
Instagram wants or what Facebook wants or what Chat GPT wants 'cause it's constantly changing. Yeah. So really it's about what your consumer wants.
Vivian (21:54) Yes, and let this also be a reminder to you, if you're out here just willy-nilly, chat GPTing things and getting responses and using that as your Bible or the Holy Grail, start asking for source information. Like I I
Chelsea (22:15) Thank you, yes
Vivian (22:16) Um, Chat GPT, ask the question, ask the prompt, but then also include in there like a phrase like
Please also provide the links to the sources that you're pulling this information from.
Chelsea (22:29) AI is very well known for just making stuff up.yea
Vivian (22:33) But well it's not it's not making it up, it's pulling it from somewhere. It just isn't telling you that it's pulling it from like a
Chelsea (22:39) oh no no no, it sometimes makes stuff up. When it can't find the information that you're asking for, it just makes it up. You didn't know that?
Vivian (22:48) I feel like that's where you got your mooshaboosh.
Chelsea (22:50) No, i had to stop this entire episode to make this point, y'all, which is I'm not crazy. An amuse-bouche is a single bite-sized complimentary gift from the kitchen served before a meal in a fine dining restaurant. The literal translation translation from French is mouth amuser. So it's French, that's why it sounds like that. But I am correct. Okay?
Vivian (23:22) you know what it is? Chelsea went to Tybee Island not too long ago and she went to this super fancy restaurant that she had been wanting to go to for a long, long time.
Chelsea (23:33) ok, It was in Savannah, but okay. Go ahead.
Vivian (23:35) And so now she's over here talking French. and using words like amuse-bouche
Chelsea (23:43) I promise you, Vivian has said this before. Moving on, Vivian. This next update, I remember having this conversation on our community call because we were both heated. we were like, what does is this?
Vivian (23:59) Doesn't take much guys. Doesn't take much
Chelsea (24:01) It does not. We're we're passionate about marketing. So Meta.
Has now launched Muse AI for small businesses. I am sure you all have seen Muse. It's their AI assistant. It started for personal use and now they created a version for businesses specifically. It basically works as an AI assistant. It's designed to help you streamline processes and give you advice based off of your data. It also now allows connection partners. So you can connect your information with partners include Zoom, Figma, Canva, Stripe, GitHub, QuickBooks, Slack, Shopify, and more. Okay. Why did I bring this? Why were we so heated? Because y'all stop giving Meta all of your information.
Vivian (25:03) She's gonna beat you guys up. Like I hate to tell you. it's gonna happen
Chelsea (25:09) Stop usi - Meta is notorious for misusing people's privacy, for misusing people's data, for misusing information, and you're going to connect your QuickBooks. Do not do this.
Vivian (25:25) Yeah, also ask yourself, just because you can doesn't mean you should for for anything across the board, okay? all of these platforms that you're using, all of these tools, they want to make stuff quote unquote more convenient for you. But just ask yourself, is that realistic in the sense in the way that I would use it? The reason I say this, QuickBooks, you guys, by itself now integrates some AI stuff, okay?
And so whether it's reporting, whether it's anything like that, I am certain that you could find a way that QuickBooks already does this stuff. So is integrating it into this Meta Muse AI really gonna help you that much more? What are you gonna be prompting the AI chatbot for, right? So and Chelsea's bigger concern is the concern that you guys just want to steer away from, okay? be very selective about who you give access to your stuff, Even if it's integrating Facebook into other, like just be selective.
Chelsea (26:34) don't forget, this information, your private information, is not just your data, it is your consumers' data. It's your customers' data, especially with like QuickBooks and Slack and Shopify. I I was literally reading an article listing all the ways that Facebook has misused data. Yeah. Do not give them more of your information. Also, there are so many AI assistants out there. Yeah. I wouldn't use made I wouldn't use metas. I I if you I mean I wouldn't anyways if you're gonna use an AI assistant, be very selective. I just don't want you guys to give Meta all to give Meta all of your information.
Vivian (27:27) And the other thing to consider, Meta's been around long enough, you guys, that their track record for putting stuff out there and then doing away with it and it's I'm pretty high, okay. They how many times have they like launched something, taken it away, done all that? So that would also be something I take into consideration. Yeah. I'm gonna get all this integration set up and then what, like not enough people are gonna use it and then next month you guys are gonna do away with it. anyways. Well, I do have one last update. Was that it on the the MetaMuse?
Chelsea (28:05) I did have one other point that I wanted to make is r remember guys, we constantly have this conversation with in regards to AI that think very carefully about how you use it because we don't want you guys to all look the same.
Vivian (28:22) Yes. Yeah.
Chelsea (28:25) One of the things that Muse does is it gives you personalized suggestions, but these suggestions are based off of what's working out there. So it's based off of someone else's content. Basically it's gonna say, copy this person, look like this, you know, and I d I want you guys to stand out. That's what marketing is about. And I just feel as though, you know, all AI things kinda look the same. Yeah. Well so it's harder to see what
Vivian (28:52) She wants you to be your own unique amuse-bouche
Chelsea (28:57) She's I'm gonna fist fight her.
Vivian (29:01) Okay, so the last
Chelsea (29:02) tell your last update.
Vivian (29:05) The last update, she's over my shenanigans today, i'm not surprised.
Chelsea (29:09) You're not even saying it correctly and I know you can say it correctly, you took French.
Vivian (29:14) one of the things I wanted to bring up was Meta will soon be removing placement option from the ad sets. Okay. So this would allow advertisers to choose whether their ads were shown in certain places. Okay. So whether it's in stream ads between reels or whatnot.
If you're wondering why the heck would they remove this option, like me getting to decide where my ad shows up in, you know, the metaverse, whether that's Instagram or Facebook, it's because they're pushing advertisers to expand the placement in order to let their automated system choose the most responsive display options for each promotion. A couple different things happening here.
For one, if you have not created an ad in Facebook or Instagram in a long time, you may want to go in there and not create like create an ad, but don't like actually hit publish. If anything, we just want you to see how different that looks now because they are using a whole lot more of the AI stuff. And so I think Meta is thinking, if we don't allow them to even decide where they get to put the ad.
We get to use our data
Chelsea (30:32) Mm-hmm.
Vivian (30:33) to know where that ad's best gonna be received and what's gonna get the most engagement or, you know, whatever you're trying to do. and therefore the advertisers will be happier because we know our algorithm best. It was interesting because I don't have full trust that AI stuff actually works as good as everyone thinks it does. Sure. but they're gonna steer towards taking that option away from advertisers. If you are doing Facebook ads, Instagram ads, just be aware that that option may not be there at some point when you log in. And
You know, we'll see how much of an improvement it is letting them decide where the ad goes.
Chelsea (31:19) Wonderful. Vivian, I think that was all of our updates.
Vivian (31:24) like we said, this discussion we had in the SOB community call. If you want more of this, obviously there's more depth to our calls than just updates. Yeah. But we do try to kind of bring it back to why it's important to you or why flagging it, like why you may want to like know this stuff.
Chelsea (31:43) Also want to point out like some of these updates that we brought today, like the Chat GPT changing their algorithm, that's something that we discussed back in August. Yeah. So we give you like Vivian and I do research yes. The week of, we are finding the most relevant up-to-date just happened update.
Vivian (32:06) You might say we are marketing geeks. You know. Guilty. Guilty is charged.
Chelsea (32:13) I mean It's true. We get pretty excited on community calls to talk about some of this too.
Vivian (32:18) Uh, Chelsea the other thing is Thank you for leaving us reviews. Thank you. You saw what we really loved, you wanna read it?
Chelsea (32:24) Yes, I do.
Vivian (32:25) This is in relation to this podcast and review of this podcast. I know she she toys with you guys and says only five star reviews. I mean, listen, I'll accept a four star. She won't. Okay. This is why she can't wear that titty bat shirt. well. Okay. Look. She's intimidating.
Chelsea (32:48) Okay, thank you for this review from Nick. five stars useful.
I've been listening to this podcast since starting my small business in Savannah, Georgia. I was just there. Sorry. In Savannah, Georgia. And it's been the perfect blend of casual fun, useful tips, and industry updates. Definitely recommend to anyone looking for an easy way to supplement their small business journey. Thank you, Vivian and Chelsea. Oh my God, thank you, Nick.
Vivian (33:20) We love hearing from you guys. If anything, we want your feedback because we want to be bringing topics to you. And we want to also know that the format that we're relaying or having these conversations is something that, you know, keeps you guys coming back for more.
Chelsea (33:34) Yeah.
Vivian (33:35) The interesting thing about marketing, I always joke that our podcast would be way more listened to if we were talking about true crime.
Or if we were making crap up or you know what I mean, the topic. Marketing is only as exciting as you can make it. And so we do take that seriously. We we want to just let you guys know that marketing isn't all serious all the time. It's consistently changing and we like to have a little fun with it and just make fun of the whole small business journey because it's a very strange journey. It's I don't know if you guys have noticed.
Chelsea (34:13) Well, thank you, you guys. Pretty, pretty, please leave us review and go be the best SOB you can be.