Social Media is NOT enough. What every Business Owner should know about Content Strategy - Teacher: Ricqcolia Phillip

Useful Content Podcast - Social Media is NOT enough. What every Business Owner should know about Content Strategy - Teacher Ricqcolia Phillip
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Many businesses struggle with content and they can't clearly answer whether they have a strategy or not.

But today in our lesson we're going to look at some of the often overlooked questions about content marketing strategy.

What are the real benefits of using different content formats?

What is the difference between just using social media and using content to grow your business?

Should you as a business be paying closer attention to user generated content? And finally, is being a thought leader really a thing? And should you aspire to be one? Here we go.

Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast, and today we have a new teacher in the useful content classroom. Ricqcolia Phillip. Hi Ricqcolia

Hi Juma. Thanks for having me here. I'm really excited to be here.

It's good to have you on. I, I think the first time we would've met in person was at a local event. The first one I went out to since the pandemic, I think it was Digi Mark, maybe.

It was the same for me as well, first major events since lockdown. Yes.

And I think at that time you were talking about uh, you were doing a presentation on content marketing.

That was a pretty exciting and fun time. It, I think that is what made that event even more spectacular because I was invited to take part at first and then I was invited to speak. then by extension I got to meet a lot of pretty amazing people in, you know, the business and uh, marketing space, including yourself.

So that was a really great day for sure.

I find that, you know, those local events are very useful and my hope is that in the future we are able to have more of those for the development of the marketing space and for people who want to know business owners, et cetera, inside of Trinidad and Tobago. And you are not the first Trini on the podcast for this season, but you are one Trini that I wanted to talk to, especially since uh, I was aware of the things that you.

We're doing, so please tell us a little bit about how you serve your clients and your journey to creating useful content for them.

Yeah. So official title is Content Marketing and Strategist. And a big emphasis on the strategist because I've recognized that there are a lot of clients and businesses on the whole that They know they want content. They know they need to be visible. They know they need to, you know, get their messages, I this and the other, but they still struggle with the how, they still struggle with how to connect, putting out the content and the marketing and connecting it. You know, efficiently with their business and their goals and their objectives, and of course by extension sales. So my job essentially is to help them develop a strategy that allows 'em to show up and not just show up, but show up with value and purpose and strategically showcase to their target audience and Whether it's their existing audience and new clients as well, why they are the go-to product or service for them, how that particular business serves a particular need or desire for the end user or the customer, the potential of customer. do that through content marketing. 

So Ricqcolia from your perspective, what is content strategy?

What is your take on content marketing?

Content marketing is essentially, you know, just a, a marketing strategy that allows businesses to attract and engage and retain their, their, their audience by creating relevant and useful. See what I did there? content for their audience. So it's would say that it's more than just saying, I'm selling X for Y or Z dollars. It's showing That particular end user. All right, well, this particular business, this particular product, this particular service can solve a problem for me. It can fulfill a desire, a need that I have. And beyond that, the, this particular business that's offering this service or product uh, they have my. Genuine interest and need needs in mind. Uh, A lot of client, not clients, but customers on a whole, people on a whole, they no longer just want to be sold to anymore. Especially coming out of the pandemic and lockdown, I've noticed that people wanted deeper connection with the businesses that they frequent. They want to know that the. Businesses again have goals and values that are aligned with their usual goals and values. So it's essentially taking all of that in terms of like what the customer needs and Desires and demands at this point in time. And crafting that into a sound content marketing strategy.

And then by extension execution. And most people think when I talk about content, 'cause I've, I've actually gotten that a lot when I've been introduced to, to other people. Most people think when they hear content now um, that content is simply just social media. Or social media marketing or just TikTok or whatever the case may be. And I've actually been introduced as a, just as a social media person on many occasions. And it's fine because yes, I do social media, but what a lot of people don't realize is that content marketing is. Way beyond social media. It's actually an umbrella term for just general content on a whole. So yes, you have social media, which is, I think, the most prolific content type because it's what everybody uses every day.

It, it, you know, we get a lot of instant gratification and instant wins when we see likes and engagements and that sort of thing, but, Content marketing can inhabit many other forms as well. So blogging, if let's say you have a website and you know, depending on the industry and you want to sort of showcase that, you know insights and updates and thoughtful content within your space, your business can create a blog. This could be video content, it could be podcasts, it could be emails, specifically newsletters, which is another really underutilized space in the content marketing arena. It could be lead magnets, it could be quizzes and tools. It could be checklists, it could be courses, it could be workshops eBooks.

You know, there's like a, a long list of different types of content that can be categorized as content marketing. The most important thing to keep in mind is that whatever type of content you're putting out, especially as a business, it has to serve a particular need for. Potential customers or uh, your existing client base, they have to get some kind of value from it. And then by extension, the more value they get, the more inclined they are to say, I want to purchase from you, or you would be top of mind for them when they're at that place, when they're ready to make a purchase. 

that's, that's a whole lot. So you, you just give a, a really large definition, a very broad and deep definition of content marketing so Ricqcolia part of what you believe is that content strategy is being very underutilized by, businesses. Why do you feel that this is the case and how can businesses now begin to use content strategy if they need to?

So I said earlier that I'm very specific about Highlighting to people that I'm not just a social media person, I'm a content strategist and, and marketer. But a lot of the times I would probably say eight times outta 10 when people approach me for in inquiries for services, it's social media, which is fine. What I do, I usually onboard or I have like a discovery meeting before I onboard. And what I've noticed in those discovery calls is they are focused solely on social media. More often than not, they do not ask about additional content. Types or content marketing strategies. So they'll they'll never ask about email marketing or newsletters. They'll never ask about video unless it's TikTok.

So anytime for them video is TikTok. It's not a massive re saying, you know, longer form video that can be broken down into TikTok or reels or whatever the case may be. More often than not that particular client would not have a website. So what it looks as if, when, when I do take a look at their stuff their marketing channels are primarily social media. So that is. What I mean by, I think it's very much under content marketing on a whole, the umbrella term is underutilized because I've seen so many opportunities for businesses, whether I take them on as a client or just businesses that I come across on a whole, that I see so many missed opportunities to expand beyond their social media. Even if, let's say their social media is, is great and, you know, they're, they're doing a lot on their social media. They. Don't have, let's say their owned channels. And when I say owned channels, I mean, let's say their websites. So a lot of the uh, like great content that they may be putting out on their social media is not on a website.

It's not being pushed out by a newsletter. And something that I, I always tell, clients or advice to clients is, you know, your primary focus should be having a website. I always use this analogy. That you know in, in business, your website is your house and your social media channels are your vehicles to drive people to your house. I. Which has everything. It has who you are, how you serve your products, your offerings, how to contact you. And again, this is your channel. This is not channel, this is your platform. Social media is, it's great. It's fantastic. It, the, the opportunities are endless in terms of reach and engagements and getting clients and that sort of thing, but they're not yours.

You are in a rented space. If Adam Ari from Instagram or Mark Zuckerberg decides today, Hey, I'm done with this, this Instagram, I'm done with Facebook. That's it for you. If they decide to put up a paywall behind those platforms, what, and you are not in a position to afford that, what are you going to do? We've experienced on many occasions, more and more that these platforms glitch every so often. You know, platforms are done for the day, sometimes days, WhatsApp has gone down every so often, and WhatsApp is a product of meta. And we've seen time and time again where businesses are at the Witts end because a day or two without that without their social media means lost business. That can happen because that is Instagram and Facebook. But ideally, your business should still be running and you should be getting sales no matter what's happening on Ari's Instagram, you know? And that is essentially what I mean by, I think it's underutilized. They are, A lot of businesses are solely focused on one lane or one branch of content marketing, and they're missing out on opportunities to increase their visibility. social media is one thing, but if you have a website, you know, there's this little thing called Google when, what most people do when they're trying to find out something or try to discover a product or find out a . Find a solution, they Google it. Depending on what your business is, if you have a web presence, you can show up in Google search and be top of search based on what people are looking for.

And your business can be there as, okay, well I need to click on this website so I know because this particular entity, maybe the solution for what I'm looking for or the answer to what I'm looking for. So yeah, it's, it's a bit underutilized and it's partially why I, I do enjoy educating as well to kind of give people a wider perspective on, on what, how they can show up beyond social media.

And I agree with you. I think that many businesses, they don't have a concept. And, and that's a, that's the thing that they take social media and they put it in a . Particular positioning in their mind as a priority thing for marketing. And they don't think about, okay, how can I structure this thing in a way that will be sustainable, that will speak to the right people and that will generate the conversions that I want.

So they, they don't focus on what are the results that I want? What are the goals they focus on? Well, social media's popular. 

Let me just put stuff on social media 

social media has sort of cultivated this, this sort of instant gratification mentality. You know, it's, and again, I think it was sort of solidified during the pandemic when everybody was at home. So we, so we spent way more time on our phones and, you know, streaming than we ever did before. This is the time when TikTok blew up because people were looking for an escape. And, you know, TikTok, you know, provided that in terms of funny not just funny, but just fun light content that kind of took them away from the reality of what was happening right now. But it also creates a, a space where people. A lot of people, including content creators and businesses gain this level of virality that no one ever experienced before. Not at the pace that you would've seen on Facebook or Instagram, or even as a YouTube creator. It was just, it was in hyper speed. So, I think the, the, one of the downsides of the pandemic is that it sort of conditioned us to expect instant returns. If I put this out there, I, I want this now, I, I want to get sales now. And it's sort of taken away the, the mindset and the notion that what In marketing in its purest form, whether it's traditional marketing, digital marketing, content marketing, whatever the case may be. I keep using the word psychology, but it's also relationship building. You know, people don't just buy the minute you put something out there. You have to nurture that relationship. You have to nurture that, that thought for them. You have to be, again, be top of mind for them. They may not necessarily buy from you today, but if you are there regularly and you're showing up for them in a useful way, when they are in a position to say, well, hey, you know, I needed, I really need to get to to paint my house you know, and I need paint. If you know, there's a paint company that has like a really robust content strategy, whether it's blogs, whether it's yes, YouTube, whether it's social media, and they have this really quirky and fun. A digital presence that is showcasing, you know, like, you know how to choose colors and, you know the difference between eggshell and whites and, you know, painting tips and this and the other.

By the time you get to the point where, you know what, I'm actually ready to paint my house. You have that, that paint company. As top of mind because remember the content that they were putting out and it was useful content that you may not necessar necessarily have needed then, but now that you're in a position to paint your house or paint your room or whatever the case may be, not only do you, are they top of mind, but you are also gonna take advantage of the tips and advice and everything that they were sharing before. And that is a valuable connection that a lot of businesses ignore or not aware of, that they need to create for their clientele.

Excellent. That's so good. Yeah, and I agree with you with that relationship building building part, I'm, big the relationship and I, I think you're very right in saying that, doing content the right way, I. Keeps you in the loop of thought, so that when things come up that match what you do or match your service, you offer or match a problem you can solve.

People immediately match you to that problem and therefore, They can now know to contact you. So, so this is good. This is a good start. So let's get a little deeper and talk about three things that you want to focus on today. very first thing is diversifying content formats to reach a wider audience.

And I know you kind of alluded to that uh, in the conversation earlier. Why do you feel companies need to diversify? Content formats in order to reach a wider spread of the audience that looking

Before I get into that, I wanna be very clear that yes, it's, it's, it's important to diversify, to re reach a wider audience, but I don't necessarily mean that everyone is your audience. And that is another element that I realize that a lot of businesses that trap, that they fall into in their mind, they're like, well, I want everybody in be able to buy. My, my product or take up on my service. The reality is not everyone is gonna be interested in your product or service. People are different. They're very nuanced people. People have different needs and, and have very different interests on this and the other. So getting very like laser focused on who your target audience is, who your buyer persona is, who your ideal customer is, is crucial. Otherwise, you will fall into the trap of being a jack of all trades, master of none and any, and everybody is your, you wanna attract any and everybody. You also have people who, if let's say you charge, charge a premium for something because, you know, this is what is needed to execute or to get this product or service out. If someone, you know, doesn't value what you're putting out and like, oh, that's too expensive. That person is not necessarily a target audience because they don't understand what goes into putting forward your product or service. Why say diversifying is important is because for a few reasons. One, whoever your target audience is, they're not always going to be on every single platform that you're on. So let's, for example, if, let's say your if primary audience is Gen Z, right? Just gen, I mean as general as I possible. I'm not even going to specifics with psychographics and all of that. But you are doubling down on, you know, Facebook your, your audience may, that Gen Z audience may not necessarily be there. So it's understanding where your target audience spends a lot of their time. That's partially what it's about. It's also because the content marketing space and content creation is Very intensive, as I'm sure you, you know. So having, creating like one or two overarching pieces of content and breaking it up into different spaces and in different times and in different platforms and formats as well, allows you to essentially several bytes outta the apple with one piece of content. Again, using this episode as an example, this can be a video. Let's say this, this, this entire session is an hour long, so someone can look at this entire session in its totality. But then you can break this up into, let's say, if you're on TikTok, you can break this up into 30 second or one minute bites on TikTok.

You can break this up into, you can get, extract my quotes from this interview and put that into a series of tweets, into tweet thread. You can put this into, or you could transform it into a reel with a quote, and you could add like some uh, visual underneath it. This can be maybe crafted into a summary blog post on, on your website. So essentially it's also a matter of creating and content in such a way that people consume because not everybody consumes. The same way. So someone may quicker watch a YouTube video or watch a video, but they may not necessarily read a blog post, or they may not necessarily be on TikTok. So you're essentially, essentially trying to show, show up for people in different formats and satisfy their needs and desires.

So Recorder, I can assure you that this particular podcast is going to be at least 10 different pieces of content when I'm done with it. So we are gonna have the general podcast.

We are gonna have the podcast video, which we're gonna release. We are gonna have five clips from this and we're gonna turn that stuff into text posts thereafter, which are quotes. So it's gonna be at least 10 so you can be rest assured that this is not gonna stay the way it is. And I agree with you.

That content should be created. With that in mind, I have a new mantra that I'm expousing on social media platforms for people to reject one, use content. So that is something that I'm continually saying now, just reject one use content. I know it's very difficult when you come to a platform like TikTok because there's so many trends and there's so many things that people wanna follow.

But essentially, unless you have a lot of time and you have a system that allows for 

to generate that, It's very difficult to keep up with that. And what you want to do is you want to move off what they call the hamster wheel and into a place where the content can multiply itself. It can amplify two x four x, 10 x and you don't really have to be going back into creator mode all the time.

You could go back into how can I make this the best content to reach more people with the least amount of effort? 

And so I agree with you 

100%, but I wanna go back to something that you said earlier.

Sure.

Concerning ideal clients and target markets, I'm a business, I want to do my content strategy. I sell a particular product, but I'm not completely sure who my target market is.

What's the best way to find out who those people are?

Oh, there are a few ways you can go about doing that. So what I usually do is when I, a client is confirmed, I usually have an onboarding process. an onboarding document that I share with them, and it's really an opportunity for them to fill in some questions about the business, what they're offering.

And beyond that, it's also an opportunity for me to get to know them and I do ask very like specific questions when it comes to their audience.

So I'll ask questions, you know, about who their ideal audience is. I'll ask them questions about like even if they have an existing, existing client base, you know, let me know a bit more about those people. A bit about their their makeup in terms of, you know, is it primarily women? Is it primarily women between the ages of, you know, 18 to 35? Then I'll ask them, ask them based on who your current clientele is, is, this your, who you are trying to target? Because if, let's say your ideal demographic or target audience is, let's say Young moms between the ages or new moms between the ages of, let's say 22 to. 32, but your existing clientele are mothers. Yes. But they're mothers of who have four kids, or they have adult children and that sort of thing. That in itself is an indicator that your con, what you currently have, what you're putting out is not necessarily reaching your right target audience because you could have an audience, you can have customers, but are they the people that you want uh, to purchase from? Most clients are not always in a position to do this, but you can also outsource to entities that allow you to gain like demographics and do like product research.

They will interview you um, and ask you to fill out questionnaires about About their product or service. So you can have an idea of like, if you know that particular demographic is interested in your product or service, and then from there you can sort of suss out, all right, well based on the consumption habits of these people, this might, this particular group of people may be my target audience. Beyond not just knowing who your target audience is, but what are they currently consuming in terms of are they currently consuming or following, or would a purchase from anyone or any other entity that is in your competitor space?

Let's use paint as another, as the standing example. You have a paint store Are they purchasing from any other similar paint stores? Why are they purchasing from them? Is it that their price point is lower?

Is it that the quality is is better? And from there you can start to understand what makes your audience that target audience tick and how to show shop for them. And of course, market your products and service that's a lot more aligned with what they want. I, I'm gonna say this again. It's, again, it's all about psychology and getting into the mind of your audience and what makes them tick and what would make them buy versus not buy.

Okay. That's great. So, so let's talk a bit about 0.2, the second thing that you feel is important for content marketing user generated content. And that is not something that we often get to talk about. It's not something that people often use, but why do you think having these user generated content is important for your content marketing?

Yeah, so I think sometimes people tend to focus, like, tend to have like a laser focus, um, on one element and they don't see the bigger picture. So most people tend to, they, when they hear about user generator content, I think they assume that. It's influencer content. Um, And that's not necessary. So for clarity, you know, influencer content or influencer marketing, that is a paid partnership, between your business and said influencer content creator, where you are essentially paying them to do a video, a blog post, a review.

You essentially create content about your product or service. So, . As much as it's valuable, I wanna get that very clear. It is very valuable. Influencer marketing definitely has a space and, done right , it can be very impactful. But influencer marketing is completely different to user generated content.

And the reason why is because user generated content is organic natural content This is content from . people who have actually purchased or utilized your, product or service and are talking about it, you know, they're giving reviews. They're They're actually on their own. They're like, oh my God, I love this scent of candle.

I'm gonna just, about, I'm just gonna do a, a video of me unboxing. I'm gonna talk about this amazing scent that reminds me of my childhood. I really wanna talk about the customer experience that I I, that I had when I went into the store. User generated content is so powerful and impactful in my opinion, I think a bit more than influencer marketing or influencer content, and that's because it is real, true, honest reviews and experiences and insights that real paying customers are giving about your product or service.

And when you think about, just like in our day-to-day lives, when we, you know, on our own, we may decide to Buy a product or service. But think about it, most times when we do buy, or take up on something, it's also off of recommendations as well, right? So if I tell you, Hey, Juma, I, I'm really trying to think of like a, a good restaurant to go to.

I wanna celebrate my anniversary and I, you know, I really wanna get a place. Because my partner really loves Italian food. do you think is a great place for me to go to? You'd recommend a particular restaurant and you'd say, why? You know, like, the food is so authentic. The customer service is amazing.

They, they have really great wine. I may not necessarily have known about that restaurant, because you gave me a glowing recommendation about that, that that restaurant, not only have you created. A level of discoverability and awareness for me about that restaurant, but giving your real experience that you had.

No one paid you. to tell me this. Um, So user generated content is a really fantastic way to build trust and authority in your space because no one is paying these people to say, well, This, product or service is great. people tend to trust. Feedback and recommendations from the people who have actually spent money and time on set product or service.

So it can go a really long way in, again, building trust and, showcasing why your product or service is definitely one to take up on. And when you pair that with a sound content marketing strategy, based on some of the things I just described, is . Only just going to, you know, shoot you guys, shoot your product or service through through the roof in terms of, well, this is a must have for me. I need to uh, out more about this this product. I need to find out more about this service I need to, find out more about this service provider, um, um, because clearly they're doing all of this great stuff

for all these people, so I should give it a try. 

Yeah, I like that. And I think that's very true because we, if we see a regular person saying something about a product, we tend to trust that more than look at me or look at this. It's just other, a regular person, just like me, in my demographic, in my psychographic, a human being who is having an experience. Saying this, it's, you're more likely to trust that. Uh, but I do have a, an interesting question. can. user generated content 

work against you?

Yes, I can. So I think most people, they think user generated content as well, just like glowing reviews and all of that. it also can be, it also can come forward in the face of, you know, negative reviews. Um, Um, 'cause I'm sure you've seen it, you know, negative feedback on either posts or let's say, platforms like Yelp or TripAdvisor or on, you know, I think there's a section on Facebook where you can leave recommendations there's a section for you to like leave reviews on that business. yeah, depending on when, uh, what people say that can, you know, . Not bo too well for that business, but I see it as an opportunity not to delete comments or hide of course, if they're derogatory, if they're really outta pocket, if it's abusive, of course, you know, delete that.

type of commentary and all of that.

But I see it as an opportunity to li properly, listen to what. People are saying, because at the end of the day, these are people who would've purchased something from you, right? They spent money. And people are very, you know, mindful about where they spend their money. So if it's, I would say if it's, be considered constructive criticism, if, let's say they comment and say the customer service wasn't great.

the product was subpar. the service was subpar. If you are really serious about offering an exceptional , Not just product of service, but just a business model on a whole. I do recommend that you pay attention to that and look internally and say, okay, we dropped the ball here and we've seen this, this particular complaint come through a few times.

What can we do? To make this better. Is it our processes? Is it our workflows? Is it the product itself? Do we need to revisit this? So yes, nobody wants negative reviews on anything, but at the end of the day, if you do it properly, you can use those negative to and find ways to strengthen whatever it is you're offering.

I think that's where businesses tend to sort of shoot themselves in the foot. 'cause I've seen it before where people have, I've seen posts where people have commented and. They'll either delete the entire post or based on what I've seen, if I'm on the back end of it, I've seen where clients have deleted the negative comments because all they're thinking about is, well, we don't want other people to see these negative comments 'cause that can mean that they're not gonna buy from us.

What you can do, you can flip the script and. Respond to those comments as a business owner, whoever's handling your social media or whoever's handling your content for your business and say, we hear you. We understand. Let's send your private message to see how we can help make this right, and you're not doing it in a performative way.

You really want to take that information and. Find ways to improve, essentially. That goes a long way. People, a lot of businesses don't realize this. That goes such a long way for customers. Customers want to feel seen and heard, and they want to know that, you wanna make it right. They understand you're not always gonna get things right.

They understand that things, things happen. But when they see the humility and they see the transparency and they see that you are actively trying to make 

to fix it, they will come back. 

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And I think, uh, also businesses can take the opportunity sometimes to make specific pieces of content, uh, that will directly address the thing, not in a negative way or not to defend themselves. Like saying, I was right and you were wrong. They're doing it in a way in order to say, we see this.

Um, We acknowledge this, 

acknowledge 

we could do better. We're gonna work on it. and and I think if, if businesses were to do that, then it will go a long way in building trust, which will then extend what your life lifetime customer value can be because you retain people. 'cause it's very hard. One of the most expensive things is, is customer acquisition.

The expense of customer acquisition is high. Once you have somebody who's already there and you are responding to them that way publicly, then it will augur well for the general length of the relationship and the quality of the relationship. So I, I'm glad you brought that up and pointed that out in terms of negative, what we call user generated content, because criticisms are a gift as 

far as I'm 

Hi. 

concerned 

I actually 

have seen that inplay, which exactly what you just said there in terms of, there being a complaint and . It being addressed and the transparency with it, I. Do community management for a particular, for a particular client. And one of my jobs is of course, fielding queries and of course, complaints and escalating where need be.

And the customer highlighted, they're very, um, they actually posted on a, a public post. And highlighted their situation, what happened, their negative experience. I took it offline. And that's another, another note as well. If you see negative comments on a public platform, let's say Facebook or Instagram, you can acknowledge it publicly and say, Hey, Juma, we just saw your your message, uh, we sent you something via dmm. It's very important to keep that transaction private because depending on the situation, it, you know, there may be some sensitive information, but publicly also showing, uh, your followers that you have acknowledged it, and you will want to know what is the problem.

So said customer. We took the conversation offline within the dms and they highlighted the situation. I escalated it to the representative branch manager. of course handle it from there. They contacted the customer and the customer made a point to come back on the public post to say, Hey, I just wanna, you know, express my, my gratitude to Entity, side entity. Um, I had a problem. They listened to me and they made it right. You see that That is a great example of showing, as you rightly said, we see you, we want to make this better. They didn't have to come back. It could have just stayed there. And, you know, for the, for the, for the rest of the public, it would've been like, oh, well this client just messed up.

But the fact that they took the time to come back and say that this situation was rectified, they listened to me and they made it right. That also speaks directly to your point about . That person is now, more than likely, it's gonna extend the, the lifecycle of that customer as a lifetime customer. And it's also showing whether it's exist, other existing customers or potential customers.

They're, they're not arrogant. They, if there's any issues, you know, they have a lot of humility and when it comes to engaging and trying to make it better, they have my back. 

Yeah, 

that's, that's good. That's fantastic. And of course, we know, uh, comments are content. So from a user generated, content perspective, you're getting good content from users of your product or your service. And we all want that, you know.

We all want that.

want that. Okay, great. That's good coverage. I like that little chunk.

I think it, it would've been great. Maybe next time when you come on in future, we'll just focus on user generated content and do something on that. I think this conversation could go a lot deeper, but let's move on to the third thing that you came to talk about in content marketing and content strategy.

In a general sense, we are looking at three pillars. The third thing that was coming up is building authority and trust through Thought leadership, and I know this has kind of been a buzz terminology for the last few years. Thought leadership, thought leadership, thought leadership, and uh, many people have ideas and opinions about what that may mean. is your perspective on thought leadership and how can someone build that? What do 

you think it is?

Yeah. So I agree in terms of there are a lot of thoughts and opinions and theories and all that, and what thought leadership is, especially now. It definitely is a buzzword. I mean, I'm gonna be very, in a simplistic, sense. leadership and thought leadership content on a whole is essentially creating content that speaks to your niche or your industry and showcasing that you are an authority on this. But I think where true thought leadership comes in is more than just consuming the information and regurgitating it back out to an audience, but also how you are using that information, how you are actively in that space and what you're doing to effect change, how you're providing those solutions. You know, your exp again, experiences can be positive and negative.

I've gained so much experience in my short . Time as a business owner and offering my services that, I can now turn into actionable tips and advice or actionable insights to help my target audience. it's not just a lofty idea that I saw that, I don't know. Uh, I saw on a Hootsuite blog, , you know, it's something that I, I did, I learned from it, or I did, and I was able to execute this.

Well, or whatever the case may be. So I think that is the, the core element of thought leadership. It's more than just reading up on something or following blogs or, you know, following a newsletter and re uh, watching tons of videos or whatever the case may be, where you get, wherever you get your information.

But it's also the experience that comes along with it that really defines

someone as a 

thought leader.

So what you're saying is that it is practice plus perspective

is both of those things 

Yes, 

and that that is what makes you a thought leader. So you have to have the perspective. You can gather that, but then you must 

put those things into practice and have experience with it. Yeah. That's what 

Because if you are, if you're just consuming the information and then you're turning that back out and you are saying, well, this is how you should do this, this, this, and then someone who doesn't know any better says, okay, well Juma said that. I'm gonna try that. And then, What Juma just suggested didn't work.

Why not? And you can't answer why that did not work because you did not experience it. That can be sort of dangerous in my opinion. If, you know, you're sort of labeling yourself as a thought leader and putting out information and putting out content out there, designed to be supposedly thought leadership content, but you cannot speak to the, the whys.

You cannot speak to the intricacies and the nuances of that particular subject matter or that particular niche, or whatever the case may be. And I have seen that on a few occasions. But essentially, a critical element of thought leadership content is creating something that is in line with what your ideal audience is already looking for. People are always looking for answers. They're always looking for solutions. They're always looking for, suggestions on how to make things work. How to, you know, how to solve a problem. And if you are consistently showing up in that space and you're consistently answering their questions, not only is it going to create awareness about who you are and what you're offering, but

You people are gonna start looking to you as, oh, well, I actually was looking for the answer to that question and they actually answered it for me, and they solved it for me. And again, this is free information that they're providing. Then again, whatever they're actually offering in their paid offers is definitely worth 

the spend. 

Okay. Excellent. Kuia, that was an excellent response to building authority through taught leadership. Uh, I think that was the last thing in the three things we spoke about diversifying our content formats. We spoke about content marketing in general. We spoke about U G C, and then finally we spoke about thought leadership. And this is all under the umbrella of how you have excellent content marketing and how you do content strategy. There's a lot more we could have covered, but we did squeeze a whole lot into our time together. Do you have any final closing thoughts thoughts you want to share with the people? 

I would definitely say if you haven't done it, if you are not involved in it right now, start thinking more beyond what you're offering and think, start thinking more. Deeply into how you can solve a problem or how you can serve a need for your audience. The minute you start switching that mindset, it actually makes it a lot easier from there to start coming up with your content strategy in terms of direction and vision, and you know how you want to show up for your audience.

So also think of it this way. Yes, you want to get sales. Yes, you wanna build your clientele and all of that, but ultimately, it's not about you. It's about your customer. So keep in mind what you are offering and how you are trying to help your customer, and the ways you can show up to show them that you are the solution to their problem.

Excellent. Great. Wonderful. Great. Closing to a excellent conversation and a useful content classroom. People may have heard this and they may want to find out how they can get in contact with you. Could you share with them how 

people can reach you online? I. 

Yeah, so I actually have my website, sister isle digital.dot com. That's the name of my business. all of my socials are there. Um, I'm on . Instagram as myself, Ricqcolia_tt as well as my business. So, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on TikTok. Um, I'm actually in the early phases of building my YouTube channel as well because I love these kind of conversations and I think that I would serve a lot more in creating more insightful, insights and tips and all of that in the content marketing arena so people could understand more about why they should, uh, 

utilize. content marketing 

and um, I think I mentioned I have a blog as well on, my, my 

website, so you can gain tips And insights there as well.

And I figured out how to spell your name is actually pretty easy. The Rick part and the nicolia part is R I C Q, which is Rick, and then it's just the C O L I A, which

is the easy part. So if you're looking for Ricqcolia online,

R I C Q, and then C O L

I A, Rick

Colia. 

yes,

Yeah. Just to clarify that for those listening, and so it was a great conversation today in the useful content classroom as we spoke about content strategy and all the aspects inside of that.

We thank you so much for joining us and for being part of the conversation and our class today. Thank you. Students. Useful content, classroom dismissed. 

And we are clear.

Yay. 

Excellent, Excellent, stuff. Ooh, I could 

stretch now. I've been sitting in the same position. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Drink water and stretch at the same time. That's a good combination.