FULL TRANSCRIPTION

Dennis: Hey, everybody. What’s up? We have a very special guest with us today on the DOYO Live Marketing Show. I’m super fired up. It is a great Friday heading into the weekend. I don’t know what that means for me a lot of times, because there’s work on the weekends. But in any case, joining us from New York City, my former home for just a minute, Dhariana Lozano, co-founder of Supremacy Marketing, published on numerous social media sites, and coming to Youngstown on August 1st and 2nd to be a DOYO Live speaker. Dhariana, what is up? Thanks for joining today.

Dhariana: Hi. Happy Friday. I’m so excited to be here and to be coming to Youngstown. I’ve never been to Ohio.

Dennis: That is super cool. And we were talking off air. You’re born and raised Manhattan?

Dhariana: Yes, yes, I am.

Dennis: There’s not a lot of you out there either?

Dhariana: No, no, not a lot of us. Last of a dying breed, we like to say.

Dennis: There’s no doubt. You know, I think one of the things that I’m most proud about when I transplanted from Ohio to New York City is the fact that the majority of my friends were at least from White Plains and Yonkers, and they had moved down into the city. And so it was kind of funny, they all took me under their wing, made sure that they looked out for me and it was a very special time.

Dhariana: Yeah, that’s how we are. We like to teach people about, you know, like the real New York, and we’ll take you to other places that we go to and keep you away from Times Square and all those funny places, that we all like avoid at all costs.

Dennis: That’s right, you don’t get a bad rap and I wanna go on record for right now, because if, you know, when I was living in the city, I made the observation was this is that like you get a family from the Midwest, and they would be confused and they were worried about where they were gonna go, and they think, you know, they’re gonna get mugged in the subway or jumped in Central Park. And you’d be on your way to a meeting and they’d be like, “Hey, do you have a minute to help me? I need directions.” You’re just like, “I can’t right now. I’m late for a meeting.”

Dhariana: Yes, I’m walking.

Dennis: And in Ohio, we’re driving in a car and we’re late for a meeting, and we don’t have to answer those questions to people.

Dhariana: Yeah. No, I mean, I get stopped all the time. I don’t know if I look friendly or what it is, but, you know, I have headphones and then people will tap me and ask me directions. And we’re helpful, I take my headphones out and I try point in the right direction, so… you’re always in some kind of bad rap.

Dennis: Yeah, [crosstalk 00:02:24].

Dhariana: …bad rap.

Dennis: …act like you’re on the phone and put the headphones in.

Dhariana: It doesn’t matter. People will still tap you.

Dennis: I know, right? Here’s one of the things I’m also most proud of is, you know when I come back to visit the city, I get asked directions around New York City. I’m like, “I made it.”

Dhariana: You made it. You look like a New Yorker.

Dennis: So here’s where we wanna get into. Let’s give a little bit of background, some context about your expertise in social media marketing, co-founder of Supremacy Marketing, and what you do on a day-to-day basis.

Dhariana: Yeah, so I started in this field seven or eight years ago. I really wanted to do events and produce events and do large scale events. And so I got a job on an internship in Nightlife, and I saw that there was another way we could connect with people which was on social media, and nobody was really tapping into it at that time. And they were like, “Sure, do it. Go ahead.” And that was kind of how I got started. And then from there, I moved on to a celebrity wine club and a conference company, and I’ve done now everything from consumer-facing brands, and work with Coca-Cola and big brands like that and also mom and pop shops. I’ve been on the business-to-business side with financial publications and conferences. So I have a little background kind of everywhere.

Dennis: I called you to speak at DOYO Live, but now, you should be soliciting me to help run my event it sounds like.

Dhariana: I can, I can do it. I mean, I love creating social media lounges at events, get people sign to Twitter and using Twitter and communicating with us and all that good stuff. So, you know, it’s social media in a lot of different touch points, not just like posting but actually how to expand your brand online whether that’s, you know, in person or making your website more social friendly. I’ve kinda covered everything top to bottom, at least I feel like that. And a few years ago, I started my agency because I felt like social media was kind of an afterthought for a lot of the brands and companies that I worked with, which is getting a little frustrating for me. And I wanted to help small businesses and large businesses just to expand and do better and, you know, kind of reach the next pinnacle for their dreams, because we’re in a time where technology is in your hand and you can do so much with it, so why not? So I always encourage people to get on social media and show the world what they can do because there are so many opportunities out there.

Dennis: Absolutely and I agree with that. You know, I mean, I built this entire business model around showing people that, you know, with slow growth, you can build an audience and you can turn it into something. And I think that people look at and say, “Well, it’s a marketing conference, so it’s kind of easy.” And you look at brands like wine or coffee, they have these so called followings. But at the end of the day, you still have to be on top of your game, be consistent, have compelling content because it’s become a very noisy world.

Dhariana: It is very noisy, yeah. And right now with my agency, we work with a lot of hospitality clients. There’s food everywhere here in New York City. So it’s definitely saturated and, you know, there’s so much going on but you just have to keep consistent and be yourself, and there’s ways to cut around the noise and really build your tribe. So even though there’s a million other people are doing what you’re doing, there’s an audience out there for you. There are so many people online.

Dennis: There is. And so how did you come out of F-I-T and get in the social media marketing?

Dhariana: Yeah. So I actually did study advertising and marketing while I was in college. So, I’m following that path in a sense. You know, I had an intern a year ago and he was actually doing his master’s in social media, and that was in around when I was in college. So it’s been really interesting for me to see the industry grow and actually see that there’s full, you know, degrees based on social media, so it’s very cool. But again, I wanted to start in events and do events, and I really like flipping through my…like, whenever I flip through a magazine, I would stop at the ads and kinda think about why they put it in this magazine, and what went behind this production. And, you know, I just thought of the back end and I’m like, “Hey, this is what I wanna do.” And, you know, social was just starting to kind of build up around the time where I was in college and coming out of college. And I just saw an opportunity there and I went for it. And, you know, it was like, I didn’t really have a real job for years and now here I am.

Dennis: That is a great story, by the way. And so you’ve been in it long enough to see like what’s old is new again. I always love that conversation because being around in the early days, you hear people now talking about it. It’s at least good, it’s maturing.

Dhariana: Yeah, yeah, it is. Even with all this privacy stuff going on, we’re circling right back to where we were seven years ago where everything was really grassroots and we had to do a lot of the analyzing ourselves. I mean, really the new regulations that are coming in with Facebook, they’re limiting how we’re gonna be able to search our competitors and search people posting. So I was just reading up on it because, of course, things change every day and I have to stay on top of it. But we’re kind of backpedaling. It’s good for our audience and it’s good for us as individuals because there is so much noise, but some marketers are gonna have to work a little bit harder again.

Dennis: Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. And there’s a couple of blogs that you published over the past couple of weeks that I paid close attention to, but before we jump into that, talk about some of the work that you do with Euromoney.

Dhariana: Yeah, so Euromoney Institutional Investor, they have about 150 publications when I was there, and it’s everything from blockchain to like finance, and just all these complicated industries that you don’t really think about all the time. I guess, you know, pipes, I mean, just things that, you know, day to day, people don’t really think about. And with them, I had my boss and we were kind of like the internal agency for the publications and events. So I worked with her on, Merth Pick [SP] is her name, she’s amazing. I worked with her on about… We were working like 60 projects at a time, different levels whether it was just doing advertising for a campaign for application or actually managing day to day what was going on with the social media channels, just depending on what each publication needed from us at the time.

Dennis: Oh, and that’s early too, blockchain as I would say becoming a part of the nomenclature now, but, I mean, it’s obviously very early and early is always difficult.

Dhariana: It is and especially in industries like publications and anything that’s kind of business to business, I feel like they sort of don’t see the value in social media or they don’t think it’s for them or they don’t think of the audiences out there. But we were able to sell like these very expensive magazine publications to companies and individuals, and we would do it on Twitter and LinkedIn, which to us sounds crazy. But like I said, the audience is out there but they were buying these subscriptions for like $1,500 or more. And people were buying them and it was just from Twitter. You know, it was difficult and there was a lot of proving to do, but we did it and, you know, the proof is in the pudding. You just have to get out there and be consistent with the right way.

Dennis: Yeah, there’s no doubt. I call also the financial healthcare insurance industries as kind of blue bloods, because they function very similarly in the sense that they’re slow-moving, there’s heavily a lot of regulations.

Dhariana: Yeah, a lot of red tape, yeah.

Dennis: You can say what you can’t say. So let’s talk a little bit about the state of social media and, you know, your view of the world of what’s, you know, currently going on. You mentioned obviously some of the privacy conversation. What do you think about the current state of social media and social media marketing?

Dhariana: There is a lot of saturation in the market. Just because it’s… Your website, you know, you used to have a secretary and that was kind of like your first point of contact at a company back in the day, and then that changed to your website. But now, social media is really that first touch point and I think it is becoming essential for any business to be online, because, you know, you walk down the street and people are like this, you know, they’re looking down on their phones. That’s where their faces are and that’s where you need to be.

Dennis: By the way, this interview, I’m like this, my phone is just out of range but I’m like, “I need to check this website.”

Dhariana: Right. So you know, your phone is kind of always on your hand. I mean, I even have those little bandy thing and I just, you know, it’s kind of weird to not have my phone in my hand anymore, and I think that’s true for a lot of people. And so because every business is now online, just consumers are getting so bombarded every day with messages, just in general. We were already getting bombarded and now it’s even more because it’s on your phone. And we have to find a way to cut through that noise, and I think that it’s very overwhelming and sort of like the longer you take to get online, the more difficult it is to actually cut through that noise and make a name for yourself. So get online as soon as possible like today. Don’t wait till next week, but at the same time, I think it can be a little bit overwhelming. And I think that’s what a lot of businesses struggle with is, you know, I’m on a block with 10 other businesses and they all have social media, and, like, you know, will it really matter if I post? And the answer is yes, it does.

So it’s just right now where social media is, I think people just need to try to connect more and engage. It’s not so much about how often you’re posting but it’s really about the quality and how you’re connecting with your audience and how well you know them like the most basic level you need to know your audience, because that’s the only way that you’re going to be able to craft content that actually makes sense to them, and that they want to follow, because, I mean, they have all the options, you know, it’s like a buffet. You have to have them come to you and really wanna connect with you and stay, then that’s the biggest challenge.

Dennis: Yeah, I think we get into this so complex and sophisticated and you spread it across so many social media platforms. But at the bare essential, it is really delivering content that’s going to be engaging with, you know, your audience and specifically, you know, that represents your brand. So what do you think when you hear that organic reaches, dead or completely dead, you know, from a social media perspective?

Dhariana: You know, this is something that I, not struggle with, but I do think about a lot. And I have seen the decline in organic reach and it’s been crazy over the past eight years, and I don’t think it’s completely dead. I think that, again, it’s just how you connect with your audience. I see brands being really efficient at it and some are not, and it’s not necessarily their fault but, you know, it takes a long time to kinda get that right, and it takes someone dedicated to your social media channels to figure that out and to really read your audience and know what’s happening. If you’re running a business, it can be hard to also, you know, do your social media to that nitty-gritty specific view. And yeah, it’s all about just knowing your audience.

Obviously, if you have a budget, use it and put that behind ads, because that will only…you know, if you already have something to do, then we’ll put money behind it because that’ll just, you know, blow it through the roof. But I don’t think it’s completely dead. I think it’s much more difficult to get to a point where you want, but again, it’s just figuring out the little nuances that your audience has going on.

Dennis: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I’ve been preaching now for over 18 months that Facebook Live obviously has engagement, video has engagement. I think the days of the static post with links, you know, is a tactic that is a difficult one to break through. But, you know, like, we’ve been doing something as simple as even polls through our Facebook page that get 10, 15, 20 votes or, you know, favorite pizza place in Youngstown. We list every place there is and give people the option to add things to that, and things like that are…you have to work harder. It’s not just take content, post it, and you’re done.

Dhariana: Right, exactly. And it’s also not just like, “Here I am, here I am, here I am.” It has to be a conversation. It’s like, I always go back to the dating scenario. If you’re on a date with somebody, you don’t want them to just talk about yourself. You want them to ask you a few questions. [inaudible 00:15:16] getting you know you, too. So I think that’s where kind of…

Dennis: It’s going on 13 years and now 4 kids, right? But I do know this that even now when we go out on a, you know, there’s date night, my wife does not wanna hear all about me.

Dhariana: No, no, you don’t…

Dennis: Right? Nobody does.

Dhariana: No, so I think you have to kind of take that approach to your social. Like, what else does my audience like besides me? Like, how else can I connect with them? And polls are fantastic. Instagram just actually put a new poll sticker with a little sliding emoji.

Dennis: Yeah, and it’s a big one, like everybody’s all excited about that yesterday.

Dhariana: Right. And you can take a hint from what these social media networks are doing, the fact that they have two types of post now, it should be a hint to you like, “Ha, maybe I should be asking questions and letting people way in,” which has been a tactic that I’ve used throughout my career, but I think it’s even more important now, like let people be a part of the conversation. Let them choose what your next packaging is gonna be. Like, get them involved. People wanna be involved. You need to talk with… You know, you have to have a conversation. It’s not talking to them anymore. You can’t tell people what they want anymore. There are so many options. You have to kind of let them dictate.

Dennis: So you manage as well, you not only consult or you actually will manage people’s social media strategy for them as well?

Dhariana: Yes, yes, we do.

Dennis: Okay. So here’s a question that I have because I’ve also kind of over the past, I would think now that since stories, the element of stories on all these platform have become so more popular and relevant, is it becoming more challenging for social media marketing manager in your capacity to be able to manage that like without being in the business on a day-to-day basis? Because stories is so immediate.

Dhariana: Yes, yeah. So, it is a challenge. Fortunately, we are here in the city with a lot of the clients that we work with, but we, you know, I have worked in companies like Euromoney, you know, where it’s global. So I’m not able to be there all the time. But, you know, there’s ways around it, so it’s always about communicating with your team what you need. So we’ll tell them, you know, take a boomerang, dies someone know how to use their phone? Take a boomerang of what’s happening and send it over and then we’ll handle when it’s posted.

So, you know, the fact that we can…that they change and then we can now go into the camera roll for further than 24 hours, makes it a lot easier for us to do that. I think when you’re on physically in a location, it just takes a lot more planning on the back end and communicating. So it’s possible, it is a challenge. It does take more time. It’s more tedious but it’s doable.

Dennis: I agree. So Dr. Mike, he’s a breakout session leader coming back for the third time in a row at DOYO Live in 2018. As a matter of fact, I have to tell people right now two quick announcements. We’ve got a new venue. We’ve got two new venues. So we have our hub at the DOYO Performing Arts Center, and then right across the street, we’ve got the Youngstown Business Incubator. It’s one of the top B2B software incubators in the country…

Dhariana: That’s awesome.

Dennis: And we will be hosting a deep dive…one of our four-hour deep-dive workshops at the YBI. I had an office there for three years, so it’s great to see them come on board with that. And then just catty-corner in the other direction, we’ve got the Tyler Museum of History, and we worked out an agreement with them to hold both breakout sessions and deep-dive in that old building as well. It’s super cool…

Dhariana: That’s awesome.

Dennis: And we’re trying to work with them on curating some advertising from just back in the day, which I think is really fascinating.

Dhariana: That would be cool, yeah, and so much history. That’s awesome.

Dennis: It is, it’s cool there. And we also have a ticket giveaway from an Instagram contest that we’ve been running with Valley Digital Services. So if you could stick around, everybody, we’ll get to that in a minute. We’ve got Dhariana Lozano from the co-founder of Supremacy Marketing in New York City and coming to Youngstown, Ohio on August 1st and 2nd for a, I would call it, a future talk on the big stage at the DOYO PAC. So I’m super stoked about that. It’s gonna be around social media marketing. Dr. Mike asked the question about, you know, for any small businesses getting started in social media marketing. He says Youngstown, Ohio but in fairness to the conversation of you not being here, I think it relates to no matter where you are. What are some things for small businesses, advice that you give just getting started in social media?

Dhariana: I would say just really think about your content and be part of the conversation that’s happening in your neighborhood or in your area. I think that’s a really big component that people tend to miss out on. You know, it gives you an opportunity to tag the location and expose your business to more eyes, just get involved in the community. Again, make people feel like you are part of the community, that you’re there for them. Go beyond your business. Give them information about what’s happening. I think that’s especially important in smaller communities. People, they all know each other, they kinda connect if you’re looking for things to do. You’re not only showing your product but you’re adding value in a way that’s beyond just, you know, buy my service or buy my product. You’re connecting with the community. You’re letting people know what’s going on. So I think that’s a draw for people to follow you and stick with your account, besides, you know, not just post about your community. Obviously, you wanna show them what you’re about as well, but it’s just one of the main ways that I like to connect with the locals on what’s happening.

Dennis: And I think that’s great, and by the way, I’m in the lucky position that I get to interview a lot of people because of DOYO Live. So I get to pick the brains of a lot of the experts for free.

Dhariana: Yeah, that’s amazing.

Dennis: So I go with the educate, entertain, engagement, and promotion kind of as a strategy. And I’ve not actually branded that as like the three Es and P, or anything like that, but that’s generally where I’m at, right? It’s like I wanna educate my audience. I wanna entertain them a little bit. I wanna make sure that I’ve got an engagement factor where I’m liking, sharing, and commenting on any social media platform. And then obviously I have to tickle in, “Hey, you know, buy a ticket to DOYO Live, right?

Dhariana: Right. Yeah, and that’s striking that balance I think it’s what’s important or where you’re gonna… It’s gonna be the one that you work on the most, but once you get that balance down, people will stick around and show you love, but engage, engage, engage definitely, especially with trying to cut through all the noise.

Dennis: I wanna really go out and subscribe to Dhariana and his blog as well, by the way. I’ve been an avid reader of your content for several years now, because it gets published on a number of national sites, and so I wanna get into that in a second. But I wanna talk about a recent blog that you wrote about mistakes that brands are still making in 2018. And the list for me go deeper than seven, so you probably have like your top seven and then the one, but what are a few mistakes that, you know, you see brands making? And then the rest of it, you know, our audience will have to go over and check your blog out. But what are some of the things that you see?

Dhariana: So, one of the biggest ones is no strategy or plan. And again, this isn’t necessarily the fault of the business. Sometimes you don’t have the budgets to have someone work on your social media full-time but, you know, I’ll see them just post here and there like once a month and then twice in a week and it’s not consistent, and you’re not gonna see any growth from that. So just having a plan in mind, even if you’re just…if minimum post three times a week, if you can just hit that, then it’s enough to keep you in the news feeds. You don’t have to post every day. Don’t get bogged down by that idea, you don’t. It’s more about engaging and really getting out there and putting the right content out there. So quality over quantity. So that’s the biggest one.

Also, I think it’s very important in 2018, again, so saturated, you need to stand out in a certain way. So have some sort of branding or look and feel. Again, it’s not like %1,000 of requirement, but it does help. Once I started branding my feed and getting a consistent look going, I saw people stick around a little bit more or they were more interested, and the contents evolving and, you know, once they hit your page, they know they’re on your page. So using your brand colors or a specific aesthetic or maybe putting, you know, the same border around every photo. Something as simple as that can make you stand out from, you know, the next sandwich shops down the street or something like that.

Dennis: Yeah, and I think that that’s such a good point, because branding consistency is always very imperative no matter if it’s on social media, your website, or on your print materials. And I think we lose that a little bit in this landscape. And I like your… You know what? You’re a New Yorker through and through, but it was a very gentle here’s the mistakes that you make with your social media.

Dhariana: I don’t need to be mean. I am very direct and maybe, you know, my readers know this. I don’t fluff it up and tell you a story about what happened. I’m just gonna give you the information because I don’t have time. I’m moving on to my next meeting. I’m doing something else.

Dennis: Moving on. Do you struggle with so like you go out and you see social media and you just can’t look at it just be like, “Oh, okay, they’re posting something.” Because I see things come through my feed all the time, and I just wish I couldn’t but I can’t turn it off.

Dhariana: Yeah. I think I can’t turn it off ever and it, yeah, it’s just I look at a feed and I’m like, “What are they thinking? Why are they doing that? Do they have someone doing the social media? Probably not. Why is this supposed to be so much better? They’re probably boosting it.” So it’s all like it just, I can’t turn it off, I can’t. I try and it’s like I know what you’re doing, I know why they did this way and…

Dennis: Well, we’re gonna get along just fine this summer then. You’re gonna enjoy your time here, I can assure you that. So there’s two more things. I hope I’m not over-budgeting a lot of time, by the way.

Dhariana: No, no, you’re fine. I cleared time so you’re okay.

Dennis: All right, cool. So you’ve been published on social media today, right? Or with Agorapulse and some of those other places that, you know, I’m probably leaving a few of them out. How did that happen? And what advice do you have for me that I can start to potentially get published in those arenas?

Dhariana: Yeah, so you can submit to become a contributor and then they go through choosing whether or not they wanna work with you. Agorapulse actually reached out to me, and that’s how I started writing with them, but for social media today, you can sign up to be a contributor, and then they kind of approve or disapprove. Same thing with Social Media Week, they kind of pick and choose the articles that they like. So you submit a bunch but, you know, they might not, they don’t really choose all of them all the time. So yeah, I think just look for guest blog and opportunities. Business to community is the same, you can kind of sign up and see if they’ll accept your articles and materials.

Dennis: And has that help then, so you produce a piece of content on your blog, and then you repurpose that obviously through publishing on LinkedIn, and then you submit it over to these other sites?

Dhariana: Yeah, yeah. I want to create individual pieces for each one, like specific just to them, but I just don’t have the time of managing accounts and running around and doing all this other stuff, and I have my blog which is like another account I have to run. So it’s a lot. I try to blog once a week. If I could do it a little less maybe I would go [inaudible 00:27:21] at this point, but that’s what I’ve been doing and I’m not, you know, I guess my audience kind of expects there to be a social media tip every weekend. It helps me because it helps me stay on top of what’s happening in the industry. It also helps me think in a different way than I do on a daily basis. I don’t know if this makes sense, but sometimes I miss concepts that I think are like whatever and simple.

They’re really not to people that are just starting out. And so it helps me kind of take a step back and really think about what I’m doing with my brand. Sometimes I’m writing these posts and I’m like, “Wait, I do this myself.” Like, “How did I miss this?” It definitely helps the process, and so I always ask my audience what do they wanna know about and, you know, I take a hint from there and kind of take the writing there.

Dennis: It’s such an important point because I feel like I never know enough. And then on my consulting side of my business, I get into the nerdy SEO conversation and all that. And like the majority of the world doesn’t care about that, and then furthermore, you know, like, I guess maybe what, you know about Facebook, there’s still so much of the masses out there that are like just the day-to-day basic stuff whether it’s Facebook or Instagram and the post, and the comment, in the hashtag, like that basic stuff. And we’re sitting here thinking, you know, there’s this mass adoption and I could never know enough, but there are still people that are still way over here.

Dhariana: Right, exactly. And sometimes you do have to take it back to that really basic level to take a look at what you’re doing and evolve by taking a step back. It seems counterintuitive and there’s so much going forward, and so easy to get overwhelmed, but, you know, sometimes you just have to look at the basics, and that’ll help you grow more than getting into the fancy stuff, you know.

Dennis: Absolutely, so a good friend of mine, Amy Abrotse [SP] from Grace Boutique in Youngstown, Ohio has a question. Thoughts on boosting post. So the first answer to that would be yes. But three options are giving now when you are able to boost what your outcomes that you’re looking for obviously. Anything, any insights that you can share? Again, fashion, she has a great line of clothes in her boutique. Yeah, any thoughts on boosting versus ads manager versus tactical things that you look for?

Dhariana: Yeah. So if you’re gonna boost the post, the first thing is I would look for a post that’s already doing well on the page organically and boost that, or while you’re creating the post, if you already have in mind that you wanna boost something, think about that and think about your caption length, and if there’s a link in it or not, little things like that. But I always also suggest don’t just hit the boost button. I prefer going to the ads manager because you have a lot more control over your target audience and who that is going to. Because if you just hit post, sometimes it just picks people for you, or you can do the basic choosing of the target. But if you go in the ads manager, it’s a whole different world and I know that can be a little bit overwhelming. But again, back to my tip about knowing your audience, that’s when you need to really get to know them.

I want a target Ann and she has two kids and she’s getting ready for her spring wardrobe, and she has this amount of money. So the more specific you get, the easier it comes to target that person through your messaging, through the image that you’re using or the video, and in the targeting itself.

Dennis: Yeah, I mean and I agree with that. I mean, you look at it and then you can target people that like your page, the people and their friends that like your page. And then you’re limited from an audience perspective, but if you go into your ads manager and you build out a specific audience, and you have that audience, you still have to go to ads manager, but then if you were to boost the post for whatever reason you wanna boost that, then you at least go back to your custom audiences. You know, that’s at least my thought, my recommendation.

Dhariana: Yeah, and if you have a list…

Dennis: Total alignment with our organic post as well.

Dhariana: Right, right. And if you have a list, you can market to those people as well and that you can only really want to set up through the ads manager. So you just have so much more control. I know it can be a little bit confusing and overwhelming, just take your time and play around. And also think about what your end goal is when you’re choosing, because I know there’s a lot of options to choose from, is it in engagement or traffic or clicks. There’s just so many different options. Just think about really what your end goal is.

Dennis: My personal take on the boost by then is Facebook’s attempt in iTunes, and essentially making the barrier to entry so low that you can just hit the button any time you want. And the fact that they market to you, that this post is performing better maybe you should boost it, is more along the lines of Facebook’s money driver than it is maybe a tactical thing. I have noticed though value in cost per mile and things like that and performance of a boosted post versus an ads manager post. Yeah, that’s basically my take on it. I have flirted around with the $1 boost though.

Dhariana: Yeah, how’s that going? I mean a dollar, yeah, it will get you somewhere but it’s not the same as… I feel like if you got the price lower, if you spent like 50 bucks, you’ll see that the actual cost per acquisition kinda goes down.

Dennis: I don’t even know what the rationale was but I was like, you know…

Dhariana: I’ll try that too, I’ll try that too.

Dennis: A dollar for a day, right? It’s like I’m gonna post this, I’m gonna boost this for $1, and what am I trying to do except the fact that not waste too much money?

Dhariana: Right. And that’s fine, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. But, you know, if I’m gonna spend the time in the ads manager, you’re probably gonna wanna do more than a dollar. It will give you that instant, you know, a little bit more. I’ve done it myself. I do it on my own post sometimes just, because I also like to test things and see how they work.

Dennis: That’s the most important thing of it all, Dhariana, right, is that you’re your own test kitchen and everything, if you take anything off the table right now, you’re screwed.

Dhariana: Yeah, pretty much. You have to be open, and that was one of my like one of the mistakes that I have in the blog post is you can’t just be afraid to test things and try new things. So what if no one in your industry is, you know, doing video? Do it, see what happens, you’re gonna be [inaudible 00:34:22] instructor within your industry.

Dennis: Here we go. We’ve taken up a lot of your time and I really appreciate that. I’m looking forward to seeing you this summer in any case. Rapid fire question, this is how we end the DOYO Marketing Show. Are you ready?

Dhariana: Okay. Yeah, I guess.

Dennis: What’s on your desk?

Dhariana: My desk, there’s my laptop, my notebook, a pen, just odd things like little just to trick kits.

Dennis: All right. You’ve got earbuds in but I don’t wanna make any assumptions, iPhone or Android?

Dhariana: iPhone.

Dennis: What’s on your home screen of your iPhone?

Dhariana: It just says hello and I have a missed call, but it just says hello.

Dennis: All right. So now this is a difficult one for a New Yorker, ever been to the Statue of Liberty?

Dhariana: Yes, but not in like 15 years probably. Probably longer, longer.

Dennis: Was it a school field trip?

Dhariana: No, I actually enjoyed with my mom. I love museums and exploring and my mom really instilled that in my as a child, so we’ve visited kind of everything that was going on.

Dennis: This is gonna be, usually we do 10 rapid fire questions, but I’m gonna add one in there because it’s relevant.

Dhariana: Yeah, go ahead.

Dennis: You’ve got a favorite museum in New York, what is it?

Dhariana: The Museum of Natural History. I’ve been going there since I was a kid. It’s on 81st Street right by the park, going Central Park West. And it’s been like a little sanctuary for me since I was a kid. I just love going in there. If you get it at the right time, it’s super quiet and there’s not a lot of people. So during the summer is good, because school’s out so they’re not doing school trips, and it’s just a wonderful place to just explore. It’s so big, you can spend the whole day walking through and be exhausted, but it’s one of my favorite places.

Dennis: You really can, and we absolutely love the Museum of Natural History, and that’s one of the cool things about living in New York City too is that you could grab those New York moments that, you know, you don’t get when you just come for the weekend that you know when to go. You’ve got a travel blog. What’s your perfect get away spot vacation-wise?

Dhariana: Anywhere where the beach is kind of my favorite. I need to travel more and that’s definitely a goal for myself just once I get my businesses on point, then, you know, I just need an internet connection. So I can sit on the beach and work if I’m connected to the internet. So that’s a big goal for me. So just anywhere where the beach, I don’t care where it is.

Dennis: Good for you. And now, you’ve got a New York tour, so you’ve got friends or family coming in from out of town and that are coming in for the weekend, what do you do with them?

Dhariana: Not take them to any tourist spots unless they want, so unless I’m specifically asked. I kind of stay away from there. I love to eat. So, one of my favorite Vietnamese places, it’s called Nha Trang. It’s in China Town and that’s one of my favorite places to take people. I’ve been going there since I was a kid. There are so many different places. The Museum of Natural History.

Dennis: Absolutely.

Dhariana: There’s a lot of different places. You know, my boyfriend’s cousins were in town and we took them to the Central Park, and we just kinda walked around and took them to some of the restaurants that we work with and that was really fun.

Dennis: All good. I love it. All right. Most controversial question that you’ll be asked all day today. Actually, pizza’s religion in Youngstown, Ohio. I mean, there’s pizza pockets in the United States. New York, Youngstown, whether you know it or not, Chicago obviously, I know where you think has the best pizza in the world, so we’re not gonna get into that argument. But best pizza in New York City?

Dhariana: Oh, that’s a hard one. We have so many good places. So, any place that looks really dingy, walk in there because they probably have good pizza, but I love Prince Street Pizza. They have the little pepperonis on the grandma pies, which I love, and then everyone also, there’s Joe’s which is really popular but then it’s like a classic New York’s. So those are the first two that kind of pop into my head, but we have so many great pizza places that, you know. I like the weird, hidden ones that like don’t look clean. Those are probably the best ones.

Dennis: Those are the best ones. All right. Which one social media platform you can’t live without right now?

Dhariana: Instagram or Twitter. I’ve been such a Twitter advocate since the beginning. I absolutely love Twitter because it has a higher learning curve, but you can find conversations and become part of conversations so easily especially for events. I just love the connectivity of Twitter and news breaks on Twitter now first before even the news publications get it. So I just love being active on that social media network. If you’re a business, it’s great for driving traffic. Just the nature of the network, you can put out tons of messages a day. And Instagram, I love now taking photos and visuals and, you know, Instagram is one of the biggest networks right now, so it’s important to be on there as well.

Dennis: So when I lived in New York City, I covered my first year in New York, I was working…I actually lived in Manhattan but covered Long Island as a territory outside sales. And then the reverse commute was just brutal, like, I mean, it was like an hour and a half on the reverse commute. So, that was annoying, and I quit and I took a position in the city a couple of blocks from my apartment, but I covered all of Manhattan. So I was in every neighborhood, you know, seven miles wide by 14 miles long like every day of the week, and I carried a camera around with me. So this was pre-2007, so I had actually, you know, carry… I think I carried a digital camera. And I still have those photos saved and I just think about the different world that New York obviously is now with social media and Instagram, and how, you know, how much different that palette would be but it would have been pretty cool. A book that you recommend everybody reads. Summer is coming up. Everybody likes a summer reading list, business book or enjoyment.

Dhariana: I have pile if books that I have to really get in to. There’s “Principles” by Ray Dalio, which I’m getting in, I believe his name is Ray Dalio, I’m getting in to it now. And also, what’s the other one I’m reading? Why am I blanking? Hold on. Let me see it from here, I can’t… Yeah, I think you can get back to me on this one, because…

Dennis: You know, I would answer this question would be Flipboard.

Dhariana: It’s along the lines of like “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” It’s like one of those books. “Think and Grow Rich,” I remember.

Dennis: “Think and Grow Rich,”

Dhariana: That’s what I’m reading.

Dennis: Because if you ask me, I’d be like, “Well, I read Flipboard,” like I have my Flipboard set up and…

Dhariana: Me too. I’m reading that, and like I have my “CN Traveler” that I get because I like to just look at different destinations and imagine myself there [inaudible 00:41:31].

Dennis: I’m so bad with books right now. I have been for a while. I’m just so bad with it. Any business advice that you either get or that you receive that you think, you know, this is worth me passing on?

Dhariana: I get so much and I’ve learned so much with starting my own business. There’s just so many little pockets of things that I didn’t read that I was gonna have to learn. But you have to love it. Simple, I know, you’ve probably heard it a million times but you do have to love what you do, because that’s what drives you. I always loved what I did. I do love social media, but I didn’t… I wasn’t happy with the scenario that I was practicing it in and so I changed that, and I feel so much more fulfilled, you know. It’s so gratifying to love what I do and also help people realize their dreams, all the businesses that I help and they actually see a difference, and they see more traffic coming in out of their foot traffic or web traffic. Even businesses that might have stopped working with us call us back up again and they’re like, “Hey, we need you to start doing this again,” because there’s a value in it and that makes me happy. So just love what you do. You’ll work your best at it and you try to make it work.

Dennis: I appreciate that, that’s good stuff. There’s a guy that gave a TEDx Talk that talked about the three Ps of business or marketing, and one of those has to be passion. People will see through that in a heartbeat. It’s what’s gonna carry you through, and that everything is gonna be great, and it gets them and get you through. So, Dhariana, I appreciate wholeheartedly you not just stopping by the DOYO Live Marketing Show to take a time out of your busy day, but also for being a leader and a speaker at DOYO Live this coming summer, very appreciative of that. We’ve sold 140 tickets to the big show. This time last year, we had about 40 tickets accounted for. We’ve sold out the previous two years.

Dhariana: Whoa, that’s amazing.

Dennis: So I hold my breath. Like every day, I’m like, “Will somebody buy another ticket?” But in any case, we haven’t got your ticket yet? Mother’s Day weekend special, use the promo code mother’sday2018, super creative there, right? Use that, you’ll take $75 this weekend only, Instagram giveaway before I completely end it. So we have a winner from Valley Digital Services. They’re sponsoring this giveaway, Colleen Welsh, Colleen Cocobongo on Instagram, you are a winner. You win a ticket to DOYO Live. We’ll tag you back in that post.

Dhariana: Hey, congrats.

Dennis: Dhariana, I respect your work as well, that’s why I reached out and wanted to see you in Youngstown this summer.

Dhariana: Yeah, thank you for inviting me. I’m so excited. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it’s gonna be big. We’re already at 140.

Dennis: Yeah. And oh, by the way, you’ve got to bring those Air Jordan 3s with you.

Dhariana: Yes, I wanted to talk to you about that. I was gonna ask you to get decided at what pair you’re wearing because I don’t know which pair I’m bringing.

Dennis: So I, a midlife crisis at 40 years old, most guys like they want a Harley Davidson or put a bar in their house or they go, I wanted a pair of Air Jordan 3s. My wife was like, “What is wrong with you?” And I was just like, “When I was a kid, I couldn’t afford those, man.” Like, we didn’t have $100 laying around the house for me to go buy those. Obviously, the price has gone up a little bit.

Dhariana: That’s sad. Yeah, I couldn’t afford them really when I was younger and I got into it more into my adult life, and now it’s like, I can’t look at the release dates because I’ll try to buy it everything that’s out there and I can’t.

Dennis: I only break out the Air Jordan 3s like on like 75 degrees sunny days.

Dhariana: Wait, what was the pair that your wife got you? What was the first pair?

Dennis: Oh, Air Jordan 3, the cements.

Dhariana: The cements, of course, it was the cements. Those are my favorite.

Dennis: They’re just like, I feel like that makes you an aficionado, not like a complete sneaker head but…

Dhariana: Like, the 88s and the cements are my favorites. I love them.

Dennis: Are they?

Dhariana: Yes, those are my two favorite pairs.

Dennis: I got into these weird habit. I rocked out some red 10s, and like then it’s become like the calling card. So, last year I had like a pair of Air Force 1s that the fly knit reds. And I actually I have a Sneaker Concierge, so I top part-time at a university here locally. So there’s like a young man, I’m like, “What do you think?” Like, you know, and he’s like, “No, you gotta go with the fly knits.” And then I was out one day and I didn’t have red tennis shoes on, like somebody was like, “Hey, where are your red tennis shoes?”

Dhariana: That’s so funny.

Dennis: So it’s become a branding thing at this point.

Dhariana: Yeah. Well, you know, it’s funny because I work with the public speaking coach who is great, and he’s like, “You know, you’re gonna be at this conference. You should wear.” He was like, “That’s part of your brand.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I guess it is.” And I think, you know, in New York City, it’s kind of part of the culture if you grew up here. All of my friends, and then we all wear Jordan’s and it was funny when we used to go out back to the clubs back in the day. We would like, if a pair came out, we all had them. It’s just really ridiculous but it’s part of me now. It’s part of the culture here. You wear Jordan’s. That’s kind of how it goes.

Dennis: It is totally part of the culture, and so the funny thing about the conference here is that we are changing the culture. And like, it’s upbeat. We have DJs playing throughout the day and we do…

Dhariana: That’s fun.

Dennis: …you know, it’s like you can learn, you can crush it, and you can also have some levity and some fun and do it with style. So like, we have a little bit of a sneaker war where we in the conference, people were like literally posting their pictures of their sneaks and hashtagging it and tagging other people.

Dhariana: All right. I don’t know. See, now I feel like I’m on pressure, like which pair am I bringing? Maybe bring more than one and switch like the middle of Mike’s sessions, switch it.

Dennis: Yeah, exactly, right? You’re gonna, a shoe change. In any case, thanks for all you do, Dhariana, I really appreciate it. You and I are gonna connect here eventually offline and talk about some other things about your talk. Otherwise, everybody have a great Mother’s Day weekend. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.

Dhariana: Hey, happy mom’s day, moms.

Dennis: I’ll look into the camera right now. Happy Mother’s Day to my lovely wife, JoAnna, the lovely mom of our four kids, that’s right, our four children. She deserves some off time this weekend, so I’m here to wrap some things up and get busy.

Dhariana: Sound good. Happy Friday, everyone. Have a great weekend. Thank you for having me.

Dennis: Thank you for listening. Bye-bye.

Dhariana: Bye.

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