Social Media Marketing, Thought Leadership, and BBQ with Zilker Media’s Nichole Williamson

Episode Overview

Our Guest: Nichole Williamson – Transforms Brands with Social Media & Email Marketing

Nichole Williamson is the Chief Strategy Officer at Zilker Media, where she plays a pivotal role in assessing clients’ branding infrastructure and developing comprehensive digital strategies. She has been instrumental in crafting successful marketing campaigns for thought leaders, authors, real estate agents, and local brands. Nichole’s expertise spans various facets of digital marketing, including social media management, where she is certified in platforms like Sprout Social and Google Analytics. Her innovative strategies have earned recognition, particularly her Pinterest Marketing tips for real estate agents​​.

Before joining Zilker Media, Nichole honed her skills in social media and marketing by working on strategic plans for statewide officeholders and various Austin-based brands. Her journey into digital marketing began with a social media campaign for an international nonprofit that raised $60,000, showcasing her ability to leverage online platforms for significant impact. Nichole’s passion for social engagement is also reflected in her contributions to nonprofit projects and her writings on women entrepreneurship for HERdacity​​.

Nichole is a proud alumna of the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies with a focus on Corporate Communications. Outside of her professional life, Nichole enjoys watching Texas Longhorns football and baseball, exploring Austin’s culinary scene, golfing, and spending time with her two cats, Stormy and Panther. Her deep connection to Austin and its community is evident in both her personal and professional endeavors, making her a notable figure in the digital marketing landscape​​.

Episode Transcript

Kevin Rosenquist: As every Texas fan, I think, does, I’m a big college football guy, so I follow it closely. I remember when Quinn left Ohio State and it was a big deal. He was highly, highly recruited. So this could be that year that puts him into a top-five draft pick category. Hey, welcome to Pay Pod, where we bring you conversations with the trailblazers shaping the future of payments and fintech. My name is Kevin Rosenquist. Thanks for listening. Nichole Williamson is the chief strategy officer at Zilker Media, a PR and brand strategy agency for thought leaders and the companies they lead. She has a ton of experience with social media marketing and is heavily focused on people and companies in the financial space. Her insight into how to approach marketing in 2024 is invaluable for businesses of all sizes. She lives in Austin and is a University of Texas grad, so of course, we chat a bit about football and barbecue as well. Please, welcome Nichole Williamson. If it were up to you, who’s starting at quarterback for the Longhorns this fall? Quinn Ewers or Archie Manning?

Nichole Williamson: That’s so great. It is Quinn. Archie will have his time. I think people forget how young he is. That’s true. He’s barely 18. I also think people forget how young Quinn is. He was technically, I think, barely 18 or 19 when he came to us from Ohio State. So, he’s got the years, he’s proven himself. I’m excited for him for next year. It’ll be good. I have high, high hopes.

Kevin Rosenquist: Probably as every Texas fan I think does. I’m a big college football guy, so I follow it closely. I remember when Quinn left Ohio State and it was a big deal. He was highly, highly recruited. So this could be that year that puts him into a top-five draft pick category.

3: Yes, that’s the goal. We just came off getting 11 draft picks last week which is incredible. I knew some of those guys who got to go and that’s the ceiling now those the expectations. but I think Quinn, Arch will be great when his time comes. Trey Owens will be great when his time comes. We’ve got depth for the first time. I think we should just enjoy that and respect that and next man up as possible. Let them learn and grow. I got to go to the Sugar Bowl last year and Big 12 championships and all that. Quinn’s got it. He’s going to be great next season I’m excited for him.

Kevin Rosenquist: So you run a blog for Texas football, correct?

Nichole Williamson: I did. That’s been dead in the water for a little bit. Back when I was single and had a little bit more free time. I still go to every game though. I travel to away games when I can, and we do Texas baseball season tickets as well, so I spring them at baseball fall. I’m at football in July and August. I’m just desperately waiting for some sports back in my life.

Kevin Rosenquist: Just staying in the air conditioning, I suppose.

Nichole Williamson: Sitting inside, gearing up for those hot Saturdays in September.

Kevin Rosenquist: I can imagine that. I can imagine that. Dude, are you a big writer? Do you enjoy writing?

Nichole Williamson: Yes. That’s where I started writing blogs Social and, just a small fun fact. I used to write poetry and all kinds of stuff. So it’s my creative outlet what I’ve loved for years and how I got into social media in the first place. I used to write about food places and all this, and this was just a hobby. This was nothing official or, like it is now with influencers. Nothing like that. But I love, love writing. I don’t get to do it as much as I used to. But now it’s just Twitter. I just now write short tweets.

Kevin Rosenquist: X, it’s called.

Nichole Williamson: You’re right. I’m sorry. You’re right.

Kevin Rosenquist: The platform was formerly known as Twitter.

Nichole Williamson: Until the URL changes, I’m calling it Twitter. I’m sticking with it as long as I can.

Kevin Rosenquist: You and a lot of other people. So don’t feel bad.

Nichole Williamson: I can’t make the change. Tatted since 2008. It’s in my brain now. It’d be like changing your child’s name after how many years, 16 years? I can’t do it. I know it too well.

Kevin Rosenquist: I hear you, I hear you. So let’s talk about Zilker Media. As the chief strategy officer, you create digital strategies for thought leaders, brands, real estate agents, and thought leaders. I said thought leaders twice. How does building a strategy for people and companies in the finance space which our listeners are active in, differ from other industries if at all?

Nichole Williamson: Yes. I’ve made the shift to be a lot more focused on the kind of banking fintech industries now. There’s things that are similar. A lot of it is storytelling and sharing your authentic self. What is the heart and the core mission of, maybe it’s your bank, maybe it’s your company, whatever it may be? That stays true to all thought. Your ship. The things that vary and are different are, speaking to what is happening in the industry. This whole financial world has had a kind of a crazy last year or two. those things are different than other industries. How you speak to those and how you have to build trust, though, is what remains true across everything. Everyone’s looking to build trust and gain customers through that trust. The fastest way you do that is through that thought leadership and putting your executives at the forefront of your company to do that. So that’s why we love this for, an industry that’s very personal banking and fintech like this is people’s finances, their personal, their business. Everything is engaged in it. It is such really an untrustworthy industry. It’s so hard to do that. I think that’s what we faced even a lot more now over the last year with SVB. I think this is such a unique opportunity. Why we love it so much is getting to see that storytelling has such an impact and grows customer retention and deposit growth and all those things and buzzwords that we love so much in this space.

Kevin Rosenquist: Finance can be stuffy, even boring to some people. How do you liven up brands that aren’t as sexy as maybe an AI company or an entertainment company or sports or something like that?

Nichole Williamson: I think it comes down to your people. So it’s people who want to engage with people. So how do you showcase them? And this kind of goes beyond just sharing a new hire. It’s how you show the impact you’re having on the community. Are you going to events? Are you donating time and resources? Are you partnering with local organizations? Are you featuring businesses that are clients of you that you’re proud of, that you got to be part of that? It’s looking for those opportunities. You have to market things like your product rates and your mortgage offerings and all those. That’s important. But at the end of the day, what’s your differentiator? Because everyone’s doing that. Everyone’s got an offering. It may be better than yours actually, but it’s how you connect with people on a different level and how you show that authentically. So my favorite thing is showcasing what people are doing in the community. How is your team giving back? We work with a lot of community banks, and this is so critical to the core of who they are. They all have core values. So how are you showcasing that? How are you living what you preach internally? And that’s what drives that customer retention and drives customers to be more engaged with the brand. There’s there’s the fun stuff too. What is the look and feel of it? Does it look like it’s something from the 90s? If yes, you might want to take a look at that. People don’t want to engage with that. They might question your service offerings if things are outdated because they’re going to assume your products are, too.

Kevin Rosenquist: Unless you’re going for retro.

Nichole Williamson: Unless you’re trying to go on the retro vibe, which is a very hard thing to do, and succeed at you can do it if you hire an incredible creative team.

Kevin Rosenquist: A lot of people try.

Nichole Williamson: They do try. But some of I can tell that there’s just not been touched since you created your website back in the 90s. It does. It creates mistrust there. The generations are younger now. So they’re looking for something that feels high-end. It feels like they can get an app on their phone. What do we mean by making user accessibility easy? They look at that. So I think it’s all of it. I think it’s how are you showcasing your people and community to build trust, and how is the look and feel showcasing who you are as a company?

Kevin Rosenquist: You mentioned the offers and things like that. I feel like a lot of times, at least for me, I just speak for myself. It’s kind of me one year out the other or in one eye out the other. I don’t know how you say it when you’re reading, but like, I don’t even think about car offers, oh, this 0% financing, blah, blah, blah. Is there still value in those kinds of offers or, pushing those on social media?

Nichole Williamson:  there is we’ve seen some good success on Facebook, and Instagram ads with that. There’s low-hanging fruit everywhere. People are looking for better opportunities and better deals. but the things that create that sustainability with that customer is what is your follow-up sequence? Are you getting someone who signs up for it and they’re trying to figure things out, and you’re hard to get a hold of, and there’s no one with a high-end touchpoint? I don’t care what size of a bank. I don’t care what your assets are. If you don’t have that strategy that’s beyond a Facebook post or beyond a Facebook ad of what that looks like when someone comes in the door to create that really meaningful connection, none of it matters. So those things. Do work when those strategies are in place to really nurture and again build authentic relationships and connections and such. A very personal industry.

Kevin Rosenquist: You’re right. And I think that’s where a lot of people probably fail. Is, is that they think once they do the social media part and they get the attention of people, they’ve done their job like there’s no more, then they’ve got them. But it’s not that’s not the way you have to keep that. You have to keep that connection building.

Nichole Williamson: Exactly. Again, if someone’s just like, hey, I signed up for this, I want to transfer my money over. They’re like, great, your money’s over. See you never. They’re going to find someone else who is going to offer something better than you. They have no loyalty to that because there’s no relationship, right? It’s harder to leave when there’s a connection there that they’ve built with someone. You’ve got to showcase that also through your social. How do you build where someone sees your face and they’re like, oh, I know them, I see them in the community all the time. I trust that person. I would rather do a bank with someone I trust in that. So you got to have that connection through from every touchpoint.

Kevin Rosenquist:  That’s a good point about the people, too, because brands aren’t just about companies anymore. They’re often about the people at the head of those companies. I think I’m a child of the 80s and 90s. I knew brands, I knew logos, I knew products especially because we had to watch commercials back then. Nowadays, people know names like Elon Musk and Sam Altman, Tim Cook, and Phil Knight, and CEOs are kind of celebrities now. What changed? Was it social media?

Nichole Williamson: Social is a lot of it. I think other there’s been there’s been things that have transpired over time where companies broke trust. I’m going to say that word a lot today. They broke trust. People were like, okay, well, I don’t trust this company at all anymore. We saw this a lot in the banking space for sure. now it’s like, well, and I think influencers played a little bit of a role in this because people were looking at what influencers are sharing. Should I buy this because I trust this person? That’s what a whole new generation is kind of grown up on, like, hey, I’m taking my recommendations from another human and individual, not just what I see out there or a commercial that came through on my Hulu account that I now pay extra for so I don’t have to see anymore. So there’s those things where you’ve seen that and I think it’s come down to people wanting to have meaningful connections with people. So much of things were word of mouth rather than relationships. Hey, I’ve banked with this person for 35 years. This is what they’ve done for me. I think they could help you out. How many conversations like that happen? All the time.

Kevin Rosenquist: Absolutely.

Nichole Williamson: It’s taking those conversations that are happening like that and bringing them to social and email and starting those interactions where it feels very personable. because, then I don’t know how many times I’ve had those conversations like, well, we do marketing well. Look at our logo. I’m like, that is part of your marketing and your branding, but it doesn’t say everything about you. If I don’t know who’s working with you and I don’t know these people, I’m likely going to go somewhere else where I have a connection and a relationship. So you’ve got to bring that to the forefront. You’re right. Things like commercials, people skip. It’s the attention span of so much shorter generations who have grown up on social media. I think COVID-19 impacted this a little bit even more. Where we’ve seen a probably bigger jump is people are craving actual connections and relationships in every aspect of their life. Not just friends, not just family. You’re seeing it with coworkers and colleagues, and now you want to work with businesses that have those relationships. So I think that’s I think there’s been a lot of things that have played a role in it and why it’s so important today.

Kevin Rosenquist: That’s a good point about wanting actual connections, especially in an increasingly digital world of wanting to connect with someone, even if it is a company you really like, right?

Nichole Williamson: It’s hard. I don’t trust a lot of people when I meet them for the first time. It’s weird, what are you saying organization? But if you go buy a car, you don’t want it to feel like everyone hates that process, right? It feels cold. I’d much rather go back to the salesperson I’ve had a relationship with. Who bought who sold me my car before that because I trust him. The process was great. It’s the same thing, you hate that feeling of being overly sold to. So it’s got to be about a personal connection and education and what you’re doing and what your business is doing and the impact you’re looking to make. hey, bring us your problems. There’s no personal banking or financial problem that we can’t solve. Together. Let’s sit down and have a conversation about that. If you do that, that’s going to change the game. Then it’s what are you doing after that? How are you showcasing it openly on things like social and email marketing to show others how you build those relationships and connections?

Kevin Rosenquist: The connection thing is fascinating to me because I think it’s sort of amazing how many larger brands that I see on social media, and smaller brands that bring on social media, experts or companies or whatever, marketing companies, all they’re doing is they’re just commercials. Their posts are just commercials for their services. It’s sort of like you’re kind of missing the point of what this is all about. You may as well just run an ad somewhere, right?

Nichole Williamson: Just spend a couple thousand and run the ad and those things will probably drive some business in, but will it last and will it maintain? If a crisis happens, are they going to jump ship because they don’t know you? I saw a lot of that with the SVP stuff. With a lot of people we worked with, they stayed because those banks had taken the time to build very meaningful relationships. People called their cell phones and were like, hey, I’m really worried about this. I trust you guys. So can you talk me through what’s happening right now? And they stayed and they banked with them Pptp loans. This was a big one where people took an opportunity to help small businesses in a time of need and showcase what their core values were about and how they feature them, and took it a step further, and talked about their businesses on a bigger platform to help drive business to them. It wasn’t just the loan process and funding for them, it was how can we get you additional business? How can we showcase who you are? Those things are so, so impactful. Why would that business ever leave them? They’re like, look what you did for us. You helped us in a hard time and you talked about us and connected us with other companies and all of these things, and you showed you shared us on your social media platforms. Wow. Like that’s going the extra mile.

Kevin Rosenquist: That’s a good point. At the time when I was working, our bank was cool with that. Great, great with the PPP loans tried to help us out and we were a small company and, they did a really good job.

Nichole Williamson: It created such a unique opportunity for people to step up. Covid was such a horrible nightmare. But there were moments like that where I was like, okay, this is where you can see the good and what could be done through, things like the banking industry and fintech and all these things. You can see what great things can be done when people approach business with helping people, which is why I feel like most people are in this industry, how are we going to help and and provide the best things possible for their personal, and their business?

Kevin Rosenquist: As a podcaster and content creator, I’ve done a lot on social media. It feels to me like platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, whatever, whatever your thing is, from my experience, it’s harder. It’s become harder to get eyes and ears on your content. Perhaps does do these platforms not have the impact they once did or am I doing something wrong? What do you see as far as the larger landscape of social media?

Nichole Williamson: That’s a great question. We’ve made a lot of shifts to LinkedIn where one, this high touch, high target audience where we’re seeing a lot of organic and meaningful content and engagement. I think the things that have hurt social is then becoming pay-to-play networks, Facebook and Instagram, if you’re not paying for it, it’s not going anywhere. Yep. That’s just the reality. I do Instagram personally because I have friends and I love to share when I’m at UT sporting events, which is pretty much daily, it feels like. But, I think when it comes to understanding who your target is and where you can share actual, meaningful content. As a thought leader, LinkedIn is what we recommend people lean into now for your business side, it’s important to have platforms where your your target is. On Facebook. We still see this is pretty relevant because people can leave reviews, and you can give general updates. That’s probably still pretty important. A LinkedIn business page is very important. I’m seeing businesses shift pretty far away from X, also known as Twitter, and shift away, from a little bit from Instagram because it is such a heavy video creation platform.

Nichole Williamson: They’ve moved away from images. I think they’re trying to get back to it. So, LinkedIn. Then if people can share, your employees can engage. I think it’s that’s one of the most meaningful algorithms out there. You don’t see a lot of ads if you see some, but it’s not what’s driving that platform. I think they’ve done a good job. I hope they stay with that. Then Facebook. It’s good to have and to maintain if that’s what your customer base is relying on for information still too, not every audience that’s on Facebook is going to be on LinkedIn. There’s still a more kind of family sense, very personal. That’s very Facebook. More of your entrepreneurs’ business side is going to be on LinkedIn. So it’s a great way to kind of hit both targets. I don’t think you need to be on every platform. I believe that doing what makes sense for you and focusing on what I usually say like two channels is perfect.

Kevin Rosenquist: That’s kind of what I’ve heard is 2 to 3, three tops. It’s sort of like the old spaghetti marketing comparison, right? Throwing something at the wall and throwing it at the wall and see what sticks and. Right. It’s if you if you try to be on every platform, you’re not going to do any platform all that well.

Nichole Williamson: Right, right. Time, no one has time. A lot of the businesses that we work with, they don’t have a marketing team or the budgets to do that. You have to narrow in and focus if you’re if it’s the thought leadership side and you’re an executive like LinkedIn is really where you just need to spend your time. Leave Facebook to be personal, leave Instagram to be personal. leave X to be about your events and sports and all those things. Focus in on LinkedIn and just dedicate your time to that. You have very limited time as it is on the company side. Again, I do think LinkedIn and Facebook for this type of industry, are probably the ones that make the most sense. YouTube is good if you’re going to do some video content. But again, they’re the only reason you should be doing it, and putting it there is to embed it on your website because it helps things like search engine optimization.

Kevin Rosenquist: It’s hard to grow a YouTube channel. There’s just so much, so much competition.

Nichole Williamson: It’s hard. It’s expensive. It’s also a young audience, it’s hard to get older populations to look at it. That’s just so funny. I know so many people are like, I grew up watching YouTube. I was like, I didn’t like that is I can’t comprehend like that. So for us, we use it as a tool to support Google-like search efforts because it does have such a meaningful impact there. Embedding videos on websites. But for the most part, I would say it’s probably the third tier for me out of everything.

Kevin Rosenquist: I’m glad you brought up LinkedIn because I was going to talk about that too. It’s had quite the resurgence in the past year. Maybe, maybe a little more. I know even people in the marketing space are focusing on LinkedIn to build their brands. How important is it for a fintech CEO to have an active presence on LinkedIn?

Nichole Williamson: Incredibly so important. People are looking at you and searching for you, whether you think they are or not. If you want to do PR in the future and talk about your business, if you don’t have a LinkedIn, you’re making it very difficult.

Kevin Rosenquist: I use LinkedIn for these interviews. So exactly.

Nichole Williamson: Exactly. Someone comes on your show and you do these things. The expectation is there that you’re going to share it. Hey, we spent this time together talking about having a great conversation. I don’t do this. So it just sits here. I want it to be shared. It’s great for both of us. That’s why we do those things. Same thing in this. If you’re talking and educating and storytelling about your business, you have to do it somewhere. So it’s got to happen on LinkedIn for that, connecting with other, executives and industry professionals and having that if you want to do speaking, it’s so great to have that ready. but customers might be looking there too. Are you looking for more investors? Are you doing a capital raise? Those things matter. They’re looking at you. They’re looking at what you’re saying. They’re looking at how you probably engage with your employees. If you’re sharing content. Are you an active member of, your fintech or company, whatever it is, they’re looking at these things. So LinkedIn, I love this because it still has that professionalism. It can have some fun. But it’s so much meaningful content. It’s all about the quality. Don’t have to post every day. Just start and make it meaningful and think about content that’s going to help someone else and educate them on what your message is and the point you’re trying to get across versus checking off a box. That’s what I always say. If you’re just getting on to post, find a different approach. Think about what’s trending. Think about what’s happening in your industry in the news that you could help someone else by sharing your perspective and point of view.

Kevin Rosenquist:  I kind of feel like you can kind of tell when someone is just posting to post, right? Like when they just post something and you’re just kind of like, your feed is just full of them commenting on liking other people’s stuff for like two words and not saying all that much. As far as LinkedIn is concerned, what is the content that you feel drives the most engagement? You see a lot of different stuff, whether it’s just touting a new thing that your company is doing or a new venture or a speaking engagement, or some people, of course, share inspirational videos. Every once in a while, you get someone going off the off-the-rails and political stuff. That’s not advised, but what do you what is the kind of stuff that has the most engagement in your experience?

Nichole Williamson: Video content is great always. That pretty much rings true across every platform at this point. Thirty seconds to two minutes max. It’s got to be talking about something industry-related. If you’re filming a video, just, talk. It’s not going to go anywhere. So really think about like, what you want the audience to take away and what those next steps are. Is it communicating that clearly? outside what we say outside articles. So any news trending topics again industry related where you can share your point of view and perspective, that’s going to help educate someone. For someone, that stuff looks great. Storytelling. So talking about, maybe something that happened in your community, something that’s happened within your organization, all those things are good. Then I love the engagement side. When you’re celebrating someone else, when you’re celebrating your team, you’re sharing something about your employees, you’re sharing a community event, whatever it is, awards won. Those things look great. Then any time you’re on press, sharing videos and the audio clips and things that come from that, I will say what I am seeing on LinkedIn a little bit and I hope it doesn’t continue, is with ChatGPT, which is a fantastic tool. I’m seeing a little bit of oversaturation. I can always tell when someone uses ChatGPT.

Kevin Rosenquist: It’s pretty obvious.

Nichole Williamson: Edit it before they post. Never ever just copy and paste. It’s a great brainstorming tool. It’s a great thing to use to get your thoughts going and share information. One, it’s not always factual, but two, they have a formula that they love and it usually consists of lots of emojis, an intro, and a couple of bullet bullet points. like it’s you can tell there’s a formula to it. So always recommend stepping away from it, and coming back. Is this something that people would know that I didn’t write? If you can answer that quickly like, oh this doesn’t sound like me, take another stab at it and just put your own kind of words into it. But I love it as a starting point. It helps speed up that thinking process. If writing is not something you love to do.

Kevin Rosenquist: Or good at it, it is nice to have that.

Nichole Williamson: It’s a great tool for that.

Kevin Rosenquist: It is.

Nichole Williamson: But copying and pasting it is never good.

Kevin Rosenquist: It’s gotten things wrong. I’ve seen it before. I could have started this interview talking about Oklahoma with you and you would have been upset with me.

Nichole Williamson: You’re right, I would. I’d be out of here, no sooner for me.

Kevin Rosenquist: Shortest interview ever.

Nichole Williamson: Unless you’re talking about, when we beat them 49 to nothing, then I could talk about that all day.

Kevin Rosenquist: I’m sure you could talk about that all day.  We’ll just change the topic of the episode. How much value is there in being a thought leader? If you could kind of give me your definition of thought leader, it’s sort of a new-ish term. How do you look at a thought leader and how much value is there in being?

Nichole Williamson: I look at it from the perspective of being the on-ramp back to your business. You’re a leading expert in your industry, and being at the forefront of your company is going to drive business back to your organization. It’s lead gen, it’s awareness, it’s customer growth, whatever you want to call it. You coming out, speaking to that, building the trust, having that connection online with someone is going to position you to be that on-ramp back. That’s how we view it. because again, it comes down to who people feel connected with and whom they want to work with at the end of the day. It’s so valuable. We just see so much higher conversions. We’ve had, banks also have their own podcast or interview series where they’re just talking to people in the community, or maybe, they’re using their social platforms to have the executives just go out and meet with people and talk business or host. Things in their at their branches, whatever it may be, having, a couple. It doesn’t have to just be the CEO. Two I always love to to clarify that anyone can be a thought leader, and a lot of times it’s not always your executive.

Nichole Williamson: It can be your president. If those are two separate individuals, they can be someone who’s more on the sales side, who is more forward facing, who meets with people, private client stuff like, those are great people to lead, this thought leadership and be that on-ramp back because they are who are out in the company or out in the community the most. So it’s just really understanding who those thought, that thought leader or those thought leaders can be for your business. At Zilker, we encourage everyone to be thought leaders. Our team does speaking, our team goes out. We’ve hosted events here that are not just for our CEO to do or our founder or me. It’s it’s everyone. Everyone gets the opportunity to speak once to everybody. It’s a chance to connect with the community. That’s what we want to encourage because they’re all representations and they’re all fantastic. They all have expertise in a point of view and can be business leaders. So we want to allow everyone to do that as much as we can.

Kevin Rosenquist: That sounds like you guys are practicing what you preach too.

Nichole Williamson: We try, we can always be better. There are always more opportunities to have the team do more. That’s, those are things we’re always looking at as as a leadership team. How do we encourage that? We need to post more on like I need to post more on LinkedIn. Like if someone looked right now would be like, she doesn’t post all the time, I don’t. I need to be better. I will be the first to admit that. but I try the things that I love to do. Celebrate my team. I work with incredible people and that’s what I love to post about it, is how fantastic those people are. So as much as I can do that, that’s that really meaningful content. Talking about clients and their wins and, that’s that’s stuff that’s natural and true to who I am. So for anybody else, it should be natural and true to who you are. These executives love their teams. So talk about them, share about their wins, and make that meaningful online.

Kevin Rosenquist: You mentioned posting, you need to post more. Is there you read all the social media gurus who say, oh, if you’re on Instagram, you have to post this many times, for reals, this many times for stories, this many times for posts and all, blah blah blah blah blah blah. It’s like, some people consider it or have called it beating the algorithm. Is there such a thing as beating the algorithm? Is there a tried and true best practice, or are we all just kind of guessing?

Nichole Williamson: There are some best practices. The algorithm changes though. So, it’s our job to keep up with those things on Instagram. Man, there are changes all the time. It was like a video a day at one point. Facebook, Facebook. The algorithm is you got to pay for it. I will stand by that. It’s not going anywhere, most likely, unless you paid for it. TikTok, you’ve got to post three times a day.

Kevin Rosenquist: That’s what I read once, three times a day on TikTok. Who has that much content?

Nichole Williamson: I want me do one TikTok post is like, but it takes me all day.

Kevin Rosenquist: I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

Nichole Williamson: And I’m usually just posting about my cats, so there’s nothing meaningful to that. I’m like, this is a lot of work. 

Kevin Rosenquist: It is.

Nichole Williamson: But for LinkedIn, we always encourage it 2 to 3 times a week. But if you’re just getting started, just start with one. Start with one really meaningful post. Spend the time on it. Spend time engaging also with others. I think that’s the part that’s lost so much too do not just post and leave. Okay, I check that box. I’m out of here. See you next week. It’s meaningfully going through commenting real comments like engaging with others. So excited for you. Love to learn more about this. listen to your podcasts. I thought it was a great episode. I especially loved when you talked about X, like making those very engaging responses does a lot of good for you too. So, we always consider that, if you’re sharing someone else’s, that’s a piece of content too. I also love the trending news piece on LinkedIn. I think that’s a great tool because they will LinkedIn has real human editors. If you talk about one of their trending topics and it’s a good quality piece, they will put you into that thread. We’ve had some clients be featured in that.

Kevin Rosenquist: Oh, wow, I didn’t know that.

Nichole Williamson: It’s fantastic. I love that they use humans for this. It is not a bot and it’s not AI. It is actual people. So it’s a good thing to just always check you’re not always going to have something to say about the topics on there. but, there’s a lot going on in the financial industry at all times, so there’s a good chance there’s going to be a trending topic soon. Make your opinion about it. If you disagree with it, it’s that’s okay. I think that the thing that also people are scared to do is disagree with an opinion on a trending area. If your point of view is different, that’s okay. Do it respectfully, but share your thoughts. It could create a very cool conversation from that.

Kevin Rosenquist: So is that where people are nervous about though, is that they’re afraid of where the conversation might go sometimes.

Nichole Williamson: We see it a lot and it social can be it can be hostile. But I see a lot less of that. I see a lot.

Kevin Rosenquist: Of the year right there.

Nichole Williamson: I think that’s why people have so many issues with X now. I see people fighting on there all the time. Are you bored? I don’t have much free time. 

How do you have this much time? I know I think the same thing.

Nichole Williamson: Right. So LinkedIn, it’s less of that. So I think there should be less fear when it comes to that. Always read it again and just make sure. Have a different point of view and perspective. I think sometimes that works better, don’t contribute the same ideas all the time. If your idea is different or your perspective is different, share it. Your story, your voice, and your expertise are just as important as anybody else’s. I think that’s also the mindset shift that has to happen a lot is, well, no one cares what I have to say. What should they do? You coming out here is going to help your business long term. So share that. People do care what you have to say and your years of experience and things that you’ve learned along the way.

Kevin Rosenquist: That’s why they’re following you, right?

Nichole Williamson: Exactly, exactly.

Kevin Rosenquist: There are a lot of different directions we could go as far as AI is concerned, but we don’t have that much time. So, we already did talk about ChatGPT. Do you like some of the other image generation and AI content creation? Do you use these tools? I’ve messed around with some. Some are good, some are bad. Do you do you find use in a lot of them?

Nichole Williamson: We use, I use ChatGPT the most probably just again as a brainstorming tool. It’s a great thing for strategy use as we’re building things to just if I’m not working with my team on something just to get some of the creative energy flowing, and out of my head into something else. Grammarly is an AI tool. I love that.

Kevin Rosenquist: I love Grammarly.

Nichole Williamson: It saves me a lot of time and a lot of sad emails that I don’t have to send anymore, that are maybe embarrassing with typos. I am not a huge fan of the image generators. I think it, one, you can tell I think they’re funny when they’re used as memes. But, for meaningful graphic content, you can tell, I don’t think they’ve come as far yet. I would choose a graphic design piece over that any day of the week. 

Kevin Rosenquist: I agree with you on that. The other AI question that I have is kind of centers around ChatGPT and any other chatbot that can search the web. I was listening to a podcast podcast recently, and they talked about how more and more people are using ChatGPT instead of Google for search. Admittedly, I do it pretty often, like you get kind of a sort of a, just mix of all kinds of different things that you can find online. How does that change things like SEO strategy and brand strategy? Does it put more emphasis on a website over social since the chat box bots can’t access social media accounts?

Nichole Williamson: Your website should always reign supreme. Your email marketing should also reign supreme over social. That’s another one we could talk about all day long.

Kevin Rosenquist: I think there are a lot of people who don’t think that way anymore. They think socials can replace us with a website to some degree.

Nichole Williamson: If anyone thinks that, I would highly, highly encourage that mindset to change, one because, well, you’re seeing what’s happening with TikTok right now, it could go away.

Kevin Rosenquist: Any day.

Nichole Williamson: I think it’s like we’re on the time frame of 200 days. I’ll be sad if that does happen because I’d like to do the mindless scrolls.

Kevin Rosenquist: Sure, but I’ve spent a lot way too much time on TikTok. I’m more than I care to admit on a public forum.

Nichole Williamson: Oh, all the time. But it’s the same thing with Facebook. Facebook was great. You could post all the time, and get all this engagement. They flipped a switch. Now you have to pay for it. So we never, ever recommend that being your main source of communication, it’s great. It should be part of your strategy, but it should not be. The thing you live and die by. Your website should be robust. It should be user-friendly. If you’ve got online banking, whatever it may be, it better be easy to use, better be easy to get to on mobile. It should be mobile first, not mobile-friendly. People just don’t sit down on computers and do their banking or access their financial information. They’re doing it on their phones 100%. So the only time that they’re doing it on their computers is one of their phones giving them problems or I don’t know if you’re my parents who refused to do it on their phone, who can use apps.

Kevin Rosenquist: I do it, I do it on my computer if I’m already on my computer. If you’re working on something. Then I’m like, oh, did that deposit go through? And I want to look like I’ll do that.

Nichole Williamson: But if it’s your first, like if you’re just out in your first choice, you’re not going to wait to go home. You’re going to do it on your phone because it’s accessible. So we always say mobile, mobile-first, mobile-friendly, and then email marketing. We’re seeing open rates in the 80% range, 60 to 80% to give some kind of clarifying numbers around that. Most email marketing for all other industries is in the 20% 18 to 20% range. For a lot of our clients in the financial industries that we work with, we’re 60 to 80% is what we see, which is unbelievable.

Kevin Rosenquist: It’s huge.

Nichole Williamson: People open their emails when it comes to financial information because it’s important. You’ll delete the ad, you’ll delete the spam. You’ll delete that thing you signed up for to get the 15% off when you were online shopping. You’ll delete it, which you won’t delete is if your bank sent you something that is like important information. You’re going to open that or new products designed for you in mind whenever that may be. They’re opening that. So get your customer’s emails. Make sure you’re updating those every year. Has their emails may change and email them like use them. Make sure you’re if you have a product launch, send it via email. If you’ve got hey, we’re having to close our branches because our whole state lost power which is a real situation that happened to us.

Kevin Rosenquist: Sure, did.

Nichole Williamson: You can email them. Social is great too but email them, they may get that faster. So that’s got to happen in that. So that’s derailed from your initial question. But that’s okay for the AI side. And does it impact search and all that to Google to me still reigns supreme. They’ve switched to an AI format as well for their search tool. The problem with ChatGPT sometimes and search is it’s saving information that people are putting in. That one could be copyrighted, but it could be not factual. I am cautious that financial institutions are using ChatGPT because it saves and will share your information with others. If they search it properly. It just stores everything in its brain. like we’ve got very strict policies on that here for anyone, like for our team who works with our, our financial clients, it’s a brainstorming tool. You don’t put in information about them like it’s got unless it’s public on their website. It’s a no-go because it stores that information. So I just always love to give that caution. but your website should 100% be your number one priority on that long tangent.

Kevin Rosenquist: As far as. No, that’s all right. You brought up email and I didn’t have this on my question list, but it made me think like, where do you land on newsletters? Do you like newsletters?

Nichole Williamson: I like newsletters for individuals. I like LinkedIn newsletters a lot for that thought leadership executive. What I don’t feel like it’s necessary for is probably your bank or your financial institution. They’re not going to read that, most likely. You want to make sure it’s very meaningful when you’re taking the opportunity to do that. You want to build, like every time I get an email from them, it’s important. They’re not just telling me about who they hired, like, or whatever it may be. So you want to make it very, very, strategic in your approach to that. But you really should have a touch point probably every month. So again, is it an update? Is it what our outlook? Is it community-focused and oriented? Here’s how we were out in the community this month. That is a little different. But when it comes to just newsletters to kind of sing the praises of the bank or your finances I don’t love that quite as much because I don’t think people are probably relying on that as much.

Kevin Rosenquist: They’re probably open rate for something. I get one from my I have small bank and I get a newsletter, I don’t I don’t read it right. But I do love newsletters. Like I read a lot of newsletters for news, marketing, brew, Moore, and Morning Brew, some of which I love. But in some of them, I’m just like, why do you have a newsletter that doesn’t make sense?

Nichole Williamson: Right. So the ones you just brought up, I read Marketing Brew two. Well, we’re in this industry. It impacts us. It affects us. We’re learning. We’re gaining knowledge. Sure. So when for this, if you’re just kind of talking about some general updates or what’s happening that month at a very basic level, it’s not going to do a whole lot. It’s probably not going to lead to conversions like, is it going to drive deposits? Probably not. So you want to be strategic with it, get their attention, and make it a meaningful email. So you’re getting actual meaningful results? because it is such a it’s such an impactful tool. So you don’t want to spam them where they drop off. Then you are now subject to calling them when you want to share information. Because if they unsubscribe, even if they’re a customer of the bank, you can’t hear, your hands are tied. You can’t email them anymore. 

Kevin Rosenquist: Good point. Final question. I’ve only been to Austin once and I loved it, but I didn’t make I didn’t make it to Franklin’s barbecue as much as I’m a big barbecue guy. Have you been there? And if so, do I need to go there next time I’m there?

Nichole Williamson: This is probably my hot take that may not make a ton of Austin people happy. It is not my favorite. I don’t think it’s worth the line.

Kevin Rosenquist: Two hours, I’ve heard, right?

Nichole Williamson: It’s crazy. It was on my bucket list before I graduated from UT. So, I had again, more free time and finals were over. So I spent, like, a Tuesday morning in line and waited forever. The food was fantastic. The brisket is pretty life-changing, but you can. The trick is you can get Franklin’s brisket at a place here called Loro. That’s the best thing that they have. There are no lines, and it’s so much better. So to go about it that way. I like salt lick. That’s not a fan favorite of everyone’s, but the vibes are great and the sauce is good. So I would rather have Salt Lick if I had to pick.

Kevin Rosenquist: All right. Well, I appreciate the recommendation because I do love barbecue, and Franklin’s is sort of the one everybody talks about.

Nichole Williamson: It is. It’s the holy grail here. I will say that there’s more and more coming up. Terry Black man, they’re kind of taking over everything but Black’s barbecue. If you want to drive just a little bit out to Lockhart, that is like the OG. It’s fantastic. It’s very, very good. It’s a very small town, very cool. but I will say, if you’re ever here again, you have to eat at Matt’s El Rancho. It’s my die-hard restaurant, and they’re at least once a week. I will live and I will live and breathe that place. 

Kevin Rosenquist: Is it barbecue? 

Nichole Williamson: It’s not. It’s Tex-Mex.

Kevin Rosenquist: Tex-Mex. Okay, gotcha. I like Tex-Mex, too, so I like it.

Nichole Williamson: So good.

Kevin Rosenquist: Well, Nichole Williamson with Zilker Media, thanks for joining me. I appreciate you being here and I enjoyed the conversation.

Nichole Williamson: Same here. Thank you so much for having me.