The Art of Being Audacious on Social Media

We’ve got a juicy episode of the Audacity Marketing Podcast for you today. We dove into the world of social media and the importance of being bold and audacious.

First things first, let’s talk about brand voice. You need to be true to yourself and your brand, even if that means taking some risks. People appreciate authenticity, and your customers are no exception. That’s why it’s so important to understand the platform you’re using and be part of the culture there. And let me tell you, being audacious by speaking your customers’ language is a game-changer.

Twitter is a great example of a place to practice being bold. In this fast-paced world of social media, where content is disposable and attention spans are short (thanks, goldfish memory), it’s more important than ever to stand out. That’s why I always say, “go with your gut.”

So, here are the three things you need to do to be audacious on social media:

• Have a strong brand voice
• Trust your instincts
• Don’t be afraid to post first and ask forgiveness later.

We hope this episode inspires you to take some risks and get a little wild on social media. Remember, the world of marketing is yours for the taking. So go out there and be audacious!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 00:00:07 Welcome to Audacity Marketing with Hazel Kempo and Michelle Fette. On this podcast, we’ll challenge you to think differently and break free of the same old strategies. We’ll push you out of your comfort zone and encourage you to think outside the box. So take notes, make bold decisions, and be audacious.
Speaker 2 00:00:33 Hey, Hazel, ready to be audacious.
Speaker 3 00:00:36 Let’s be audacious. Michelle.
Speaker 2 00:00:38 I mean, I’m kind of in an audacity mood today, so I think it works. Very excited. I actually gave a presentation today and I was stressed about it first, and then afterwards, like, ah, I don’t know why I was worried it went so well. And part of that is the audacity to, you know, do it in your own timing and all of that. And, uh, as we talk about Audacity, let’s talk about social media. Like we’ve talked a little bit, we actually prepare a little bit beforehand. I don’t know if people know that, but you know, it’s not just always let’s wing it. But we have a couple talking points, and one of the things we talked about is social media is a great place to practice audacity. So, um, you had some good thoughts on that. What were your, what were some of your thoughts about audacity and social?
Speaker 3 00:01:23 Yeah, I mean, we talked about some of the ways that it’s so, well we’re gonna talk about today some of the ways it’s so important to have a true brand voice in social. But I think one of the things that I love about social media, and especially where it is today, how fast moving it is, how don’t know if Elon Musk is gonna buy Twitter today or something’s gonna happen tomorrow, right? The goldfish memory of social media allows you a lot of forgiveness to be audacious and learn what audacious means in your brand voice. And I think, um, it’s the perfect platform to try that out. Michelle. I know. Mm-hmm. , you are constantly experimenting on social.
Speaker 2 00:02:02 I love, I love Twitter especially, and I know that right now it’s this giant chaotic, you know, Elon Musk mess or whatever, but it’s still working for brands. It’s harder. Like you and I were talking, it’s like, I don’t necessarily see all my friends post. If I comment on your stuff, then I’m gonna see your stuff more often and like they’ve changed the algorithm somehow or whatever. But what I’m seeing is it’s still working for brands, and the brands that I’m posting for are still getting engagement because of some of the audacious things that I do within Twitter for those brands. So I love a good meme. I think memes have the place, queen , I think there’s, there’s room for them, right? And so, um, within reason, so like I, you know, I, I run several plug-in and brand accounts for WordPress brands. I don’t think any of them should aspire to be Wendy’s, right? So they shouldn’t have the brand voice of Wendy’s that is mocking all of their competitors. That that’s
Speaker 3 00:03:02 Not, I’m going to say the same thing. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:03:04 That is not a WordPress ecosystem Okay. Thing to do. But we can poke fun at our industry without poking fun at each other. So for example, I built a meme earlier this week and it’s, um, Tommy Lee Jones, and he is kind of like looking down over his glasses, like, are you serious
Speaker 3 00:03:22 ?
Speaker 2 00:03:22 And I thought, I put my face when the client asks if I can make the logo bigger, right? , because that’s one of those terrible things. Like we all have had that shared experience. If you’ve built a website and our customers at, at Stellar are people who are building websites, and that resonated with a lot of people that has, and we’re a small brand as far as social media goes. We have less than 2000 followers, but I have 1200 people have seen and interacted with, seen and or interacted with that one tweet.
Speaker 3 00:03:56 That’s amazing. And I think, I think a little bit about being audacious, is it, it really is speaking to your customer in the right voice. And it can be scary sometimes because sometimes, especially if you’re like Michelle and know the customer so well, you, other people might doubt it. It’s like, oh, that’s not a joke. I understand. But if your customer understands it, and Wendy’s a good example of that in their lane, right? They went this lane of like, they wanted to go after a young customer who was edgy and it really worked for that. Mm-hmm. , I don’t think everyone should interpret aud audacity as sarcasm or weird or rudeness, whatever. Yeah. It, it, none of that, it, it’s really authenticity is what it boils down to, but it does take a little bit of gut, uh, to be authentic like that. I think so it does.
Speaker 2 00:04:43 Um, and what’s really interesting is, so, um, you know, you and I worked together at Stellar and when I first started taking over the Stellar Twitter account, I was still working at Give, and I was like, Hey, I wanna play with it. And you’re like, here’s the password, here’s your login, go for it, right? Yep. And I started posting some things and asking some questions and interacting, giving us a brand voice that hadn’t been really established yet, at least social wise. And I had one person, Topher Deja message me, he’s like, are you running the, the, the Stellar Twitter account? And I was like, why do you ask? He goes, cuz it sounds like you. I’m like, yes. It’s me. Like, hello
Speaker 3 00:05:22 . I like the signature has gone through. But that’s like, because you and that stellar brand voice is so synonymous, it works so well. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:31 Yeah. And it, and he, and it was like almost like a slow clap, like, all right, good job kind of thing, you know, because he could put the person with it and understand it. The brand went to so well together. But yeah, it was, it was, it made me laugh. He’s the only person that’s ever come to me and said that too. So it’s not like, oh, Michelle’s tweeting this and whatever. But yeah, so a lot of fun,
Speaker 3 00:05:51 But I think, um, there is some level of audacity in, uh, when we talk about video, um, in the world of social as well, because it just takes the guts to go out there and do it one time. It’s, it is so hard for people who haven’t made videos, even a TikTok video or anything like that to go do it. And I mean, really honestly, it, it, that is the audacity, the audacity to go create a video and think someone’s gonna like it and whatever, but it really does take it. And I think the more authentic you are in those voices, when you go whip up a quick video and don’t worry about all of the things about it all the time. If it’s not a polished video, um, works really well when you’re doing a social media voice. Of course, there’s other channels when you’re gonna do a more polished tutorial, those sort of things. But I think when you think about video from different lenses, social media being one of them, there’s a lot of fun you can have being audacious without it taking a lot of extra effort. Mm-hmm. ,
Speaker 2 00:06:48 Which you just gave me a really good idea for, um, for a, a video going forward. And I, I’m gonna, I’m gonna sit on it and not say it out loud yet, but when it comes out, it’s gonna be audacious, but
Speaker 3 00:06:58 , oh, can’t wait.
Speaker 2 00:07:00 . I know we’ll talk about it later. Um, , but you’re right. So brand voice is important, right? So it’s, it’s not just my, it’s not Michelle’s voice. It’s the way Michelle is portraying that brand voice though, right? That people could sometimes hear, um, my tone or something in it. But, but my, if you go to my Twitter, it doesn’t sound like the stellar voice at all because my Twitter is absolutely authentically me and isn’t ta not, tainted is not the right word, but mingled in or whatever with, uh, but,
Speaker 3 00:07:26 But what do you think about that mix of the human, there’s somewhat of a human voice to a brand. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2 00:07:35 I think it’s important. I think that, um, I, I gave a talk today on community and building community around your product, and you can’t build community around a product that doesn’t have a human quality to it, right? So like when Coca, everybody’s drank Coca-Cola for the, since you know, the donning of Coca-Cola, but in the seventies they had that, you know, I’d like to teach the world to sing. I’d like to give the world a coke. And it wasn’t a bunch of cartoons on a, on a hill. It wasn’t, you know, a song behind pouring a Coca-Cola. It was people sitting on a hill with candles in a kumbaya kind of thing, which was the seventies vibe, right? And it humanized Coca-Cola to the point where it wasn’t just a soft drink, it was an experience. And people and humans experience things. And so I think to show the humanity in your brand is super important, doesn’t have to have the face of an actual person like this person is that brand. No, it doesn’t have to be the c e o that’s in every commercial, for example. But it has to show the humanity and the reason why humans would interact with who you are.
Speaker 3 00:08:47 And it’s amazing. That’s so true. And it’s amazing how it took a, I don’t know, B2B SaaS brands, uh, good decade or two to realize like, oh, there’s humans making the buying decisions behind this . I don’t need to just have a list of features for a robot. There’s an actual human making the decision here, and they’re gonna make a decision on some logical thing, but some things that are just a feeling, and if the brand feels good and it feels like you’re speaking the language, whether it’s payroll software, or Coke.
Speaker 2 00:09:19 Yep, exactly. And am I gonna use the same tactics on Twitter as I am on my blog? Nope, not at all. But it can still have the same voice within the whole brand from platform to platform and deliver things to the audience that’s there that, that interact with and resonate with that audience.
Speaker 3 00:09:38 Yeah. One way I’ve heard it described is you describe your brand as, um, say a celebrity. Um, let’s say my brand is George Clooney, and then you described your brand, uh, at a cocktail party. Who is your, who are they, are they still George Clooney if they’re kind of dressed up a little bit polished? Um, but my favorite is like, okay, well who is your brand after like three drinks? And which I think is interesting, right? Cause like your George Clooney, but after three drinks, your, I don’t know, who do we got out there? Russell Brand? Uh,
Speaker 2 00:10:16 Wow. Only three drinks from Clooney to brand. OK.
Speaker 3 00:10:19 , I think you can use that exercise to sort of see how your amplified version and muted version of your brand works on different platforms, right? Your absolutely, your business meeting George Clooney is in LinkedIn, but your three cocktails in, uh, George Clooney is hanging out on TikTok.
Speaker 2 00:10:38 Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And it, and it really is about that audience and how those people who are seeing that and interacting with that are going to resonate with it or not. And, and if your brand is only putting out blog posts with marketing type around and marketing text around that blog post, you are missing a huge opportunity to be audacious and interact with an audience that will resonate with your brand if you only give it a voice.
Speaker 3 00:11:04 Absolutely. One thing that you always do really well, Michelle, is respect the customer. And what I mean by that is like, don’t try to sell something that you wouldn’t also like, or use language that you wouldn’t also like, whether it’s in your market or not. I think business owners and marketers tend to get in their heads a little bit when, I don’t know, they start thinking about the customer to, in a weird way that’s, that’s sort of deeply even in the wrong angle, and they forget that it’s a person. And if you step back and look at the way that you wrote perhaps some cheesy copy with you by that, probably not. Right? Like soon as it just takes a little bit to step back and, and customers fall into that trap often, and it’s often when they’re trying to be too safe. So something
Speaker 2 00:11:51 I agree. And, and the, the the last thing I wanted to bring forward as somebody who is creating the voice of the brand, a lot of times, um, I’ve always kind of just like created and then if it didn’t work or somebody didn’t like it, I’ll be like, oh, sorry. Right? Like, I, I absolutely, I don’t, I don’t vet every tweet through a group of people. I don’t vet every post in a, in a Facebook group or I mean, blog content. Absolutely. Right. That has to have sets of eyes, that has to have sel, all of those other things. But social media interactions, again, the goldfish, you know, memory, um,
Speaker 3 00:12:27 Absolutely
Speaker 2 00:12:28 Tweet first, ask forgiveness later, .
Speaker 3 00:12:32 Yeah. So let’s see. So our top three, our three tips, when we boil down to it for social media and being audacious, we’ve got strong brand voice. Tell me a little bit that Michelle, strong brand voice.
Speaker 2 00:12:42 Yep. So your brand should stand out as itself. It should be something that really speaks to people. And you should be able to picture a persona of whether it’s a real person like George Clooney or just like this fictitious person in your mind, like the most interesting man in the world, right? For yes. Osakis great one. He’s not a, he’s, he’s an actor. He’s not a real person, but he represents who you think of as that brand. And that’s what you wanna have, is you wanna have somebody pictured in your head that represents that brand.
Speaker 3 00:13:09 Absolutely. Second is go with your guts. This is one that I think as Michelle as just was speaking about, is sometimes as a, if you’re a person managing social, take that as a badge of honor and like, you know, post and ask for forgiveness later. Uh, I’m giving a tip of hint with your God tied in together. The go with your gut of it is so important. If you’re mm-hmm. deep in social, it’s likely that you understand the language of what people are speaking on social more than anyone else in your office, more than anyone else on your team. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:13:46 . Yep. And sometimes we make some, we, we, we make bad decisions, right? So sometimes we think something’s gonna resonate and it doesn’t. Um, there’s Maya culpa for a reason. There’s apologies for a reason, and there’s always the delete button. Yes, somebody’s probably screenshotted and it will live forever, but it doesn’t have to stay in your timeline forever.
Speaker 3 00:14:04 That said, I mean, obviously I always talk with respect and not be if like you should. Uh, that’s why I don’t recommend edgy as a tactic, right? Because it could get you into trouble in spots mm-hmm. where something that you might think is funny, is not funny to people, that you weren’t even aware of the issue of that. And it’s just unnecessary drama. So that’s the only thing I would say is watch. Don’t try to be edgy just for the sake of being edgy.
Speaker 2 00:14:30 Right. No, I think that’s very good. That’s very good advice. Absolutely. I saw TikTok yesterday and the woman said, why does nobody read and approve ads before they’re published? Now remember, ads are different than social media, right? But she was in the airport and she walked by this humongous ad that some, something along the lines of, and I’m gonna make up numbers here, like 250,000 people are blind. Let’s reduce that to zero. And it may sound like, let’s go out and kill all the blind people. certainly it wasn’t edgy, but also not well thought out. So you can, you can be fun, you can be audacious. Just also perhaps be a little careful.
Speaker 3 00:15:16 . Absolutely. And then Michelle, give us the last one of, uh, ask for forgiveness, not permission.
Speaker 2 00:15:23 Yeah. So, you know, if you are somebody who has been hired to do your job, you shouldn’t have to worry about getting everything approved. Um, I love to post content that is in, in, you know, in, uh, informative. I love to post content that tells about the great products that we have, but I also like to post content that is engaging. I wanna make sure we’re gonna show up in the algorithm for people that they’re gonna see it. I’m not, I don’t have to be tweeting it out or copy the tweet and Sunday gets my friends to interact with. I want it to be something that naturally comes up. And so sometimes you have to create things that are a little more fun and a little more edgy. Like the memes that I’ve created are fun polls. Yes. Um, absolutely. And a polls are so much fun because people can interact quickly and a poll or a meme that people will like because it’s made them laugh or because it made them want to give their opinion, or a way to drive engagement and show your worthiness and then therefore, um, you know, help you with an algorithm in social media.
Speaker 3 00:16:24 I think that’s great. And then we, I mean, it’s so great to think about the absolute worst case scenario. If you have a post that doesn’t work, is that like, it gets maybe 10 views and no lights . And that if that’s the worst thing that happens in the day, that’s not that bad.
Speaker 2 00:16:39 , some of my funniest tweets had no engagement. I’m like, what is wrong with people? I think it’s hysterical. That’s okay. It’s okay. You can always retweet it later if you, if it just didn’t fall through
Speaker 3 00:16:49 . That’s the, that’s the trick. That’s the trick. Alright, Michelle, well this has been great today. Thank
Speaker 2 00:16:54 You all. We’ll see everybody next week. Be audacious.
Speaker 1 00:17:00 This has been Michelle Rochette and Hazel Kempo with Audacity Marketing. Dare to Be Different and Dominate Your Market with Audacity.