Going Social First: The Nuances of Creative Strategy & Production Today
Join Molly Baker, Founder of Indie Consulting and Kat Baker, Client Strategy Director for Creative Services at Indie Consulting as they discuss the best ways to cater to individual clients when it comes to Indie’s new Creative offerings. In this episode, Kat delves into the changes of content creation trends over the years, and the importance of adjusting assets to a particular client’s strategy. Molly and Kat also talk through the ins and outs of working with family, and the value of having an honest and open working relationship.
MB [Molly Baker]: Talk about what you're thinking about professionally right now.
KB [Kat Baker]: I'm thinking about a lot. In the past month or so, I've been moving into a new role at my job, and this role previously didn't exist in this capacity and is also coming along with some service offering evolutions. The past two months or so have really been a lot of learning and growing and networking, having different conversations with people to kind of help inform how best we can present ourselves in this new way. And on top of that, my team has nearly doubled in size. That's been an undertaking for me as well, just making sure that my existing team still feels supported and not much has changed, but that the new members of the team are good with everything going on. On top of that, I'm onboarding myself onto all of their work. It's been a lot, but I think that's a good thing. Sometimes when you have a lot going on, it makes you feel like you can better put into practice how to enhance your organizational skills and check your goals off for the week. I think that it's been fun. Some weeks are a miss, and you know what to change the week after. And then some weeks you think; “Wow, I actually did all that today.”
MB: Without revealing what you're doing and who you are, what is the most exciting part about the change?
KB: I think that given the size of the company, it's always been exciting to see it grow and change and have a firsthand in that. Previously I've been playing more of a supportive role, and now this is something that I have a lot of say in and can help craft in, hopefully, a way that will really benefit the business.
MB: Brag about yourself. What are you really good at?
KB: I have a great family, a great husband. I have a great job. And outside of work, I'm also a yoga teacher. So I like to have a lot of things going on at once, but it's really fun just being able to meet new people, have different conversations, and, hopefully, grow in the community. And on top of that, I really enjoy baking. I like to make mini cakes, and the fall is another birthday season in my family. That gives me an excuse to try out different fall recipes. So I made a mini pumpkin cake a couple weeks ago, which actually turned out pretty well.
MB: Talk a little bit about this trend of brands really wanting to lean into being social first. What does that mean to you?
KB: I think, you know, I've heard it defined in so many different ways. How do you define that? I have also heard it defined in a multitude of ways. I think it's a very catchy thing to say right now, so a lot of people are saying it. But then you ask what that means to them, and there's not a lot to back it up. I think it's a hard thing to define for a lot of people. From my perspective, social first would be developing a campaign or a brand strategy that's really primarily showcasing how your brand shows up on social, and that's your number one priority. So whether that's from a tactical standpoint, developing campaign assets that are fit for platform, which will be different depending on which platform you're showing up on. Your YouTube assets are gonna be different than your TikTok assets, which are different from your Instagram assets, or figuring out the best communication strategy that allows your brand to really evolve on social and build relationships with not only your followers, but just people using the platform. That can even extend into the event space where if you're putting events on, your sole purpose is that you want this to end up on social media. So from my perspective, social first is really just having social that is your guiding light for how you want your brand to show up and figuring out the best way to do that.
MB: How do you let social then guide your strategic decisions as a brand. Are you creating social assets first and then using those assets on other platforms? What does that look like?
KB: I think the trends portion of social media has just kind of taken on a life of its own. When it comes to thinking about jumping on agile moments or trends, whether that's a TikTok dance or the demure trend that we saw a couple weeks ago, it's not necessarily the place for every brand to play. And I think when social first first started getting talked about, that was it. We're gonna jump on agile moments. We want our brand to create this quick-turn content, which is great in theory, but on the other hand, doesn't always fit with your brand persona. It's unrealistic that for these really big brands, they're creating content, getting it reviewed by legal, getting it reviewed by the team, implementing feedback within the span of the trend's life, which could be a week. Sometimes it takes six weeks to develop one asset, and then now you're looking at the opposite of social first because you're jumping on the trend way late in the game. So I think part of putting together a social first strategy is figuring out how and what type of space you leave for trends in your social strategy. That can be maybe a few assets a month that you're planning to be quick turn and agile to jump on those trending moments if they make sense for your brand. Otherwise, I think it's important to remember that you could also create your own trend. So whatever creative idea you're implementing into social for your campaign assets could end up being something that sparks a trend for everybody else, and I think that's an important thing to keep in mind.
MB: What's your point of view on just the sheer volume of assets and content needed today?
KB: I think that it's good to continually make content, but I think it's also important to keep in mind how your content can work smarter and not necessarily having to make your team work harder. Having raw clips of whatever assets you're creating, and that way you can repurpose them for different platforms. Where content volume to me is most important is when it comes to creating influencer content versus organic specific content versus paid content because the KPIs you're tracking on all of those are gonna look a little bit different and what your call to action looks different on all of them. For our organic assets, you're really trying to build your community and your brand personality and maybe jump on trends, and it’s less about driving home the point to go buy the product. It's hopefully increasing your brand loyalty and your engagement, whereas with paid assets, you're gonna want people to go, at the end of the day, convert and purchase. And influencer assets play a different role. When it comes to volume, having the appropriate amount of each of those types of content is more important than needing 17 pieces of agile content this month, all to power organic along with all of the evergreen assets that we're making for this campaign. You can use your content in different ways to make it work how you want it to, but prioritizing in which kind of bucket they show up in.
MB: What relationship has been most impactful on you professionally?
KB: I'm fortunate enough to have a lot of people who have made positive impacts on my professional career. My dad is someone that comes to mind because he was in business all while I was growing up, and although sometimes it's advice that I don't wanna hear, always provides advice that, if I end up taking it, usually ends in a good result. And I think he always does a good job of keeping business in mind to make the point that this isn't all about me, but it's about the business. When I left my first job, I was terrified. And he said; “You're not gonna wanna hear this, but they're gonna find someone to replace you. It's not that big of a deal, so you don't need to be freaking out to go quit right now,” which in hindsight is good advice because I was 24. They didn't care. You're relatively replaceable at that point in time. It's always just been a good guiding voice, and he's always also supported me regardless of what I have decided to do. Sometimes as a woman in the workplace, you feel like you have to show up differently, and he's always been a good voice of reason that you can do anything anybody else can do in the work world.
MB: So tell us who you are.
KB: My name is Kat Baker, and I am the Client Strategy Director for our Creative services at Indie Consulting. I'm also Molly's sister.
MB: Tell us about what an average day looks like for you.
KB: We've been interviewing a lot this week, I've had to answer this question a lot. No day looks the same. I like that a lot about work. That it keeps things interesting. You're always on your toes. We have a lot of calls with our clients regularly. We have a lot of internal calls regularly, networking. Everything's different. I was saying to someone yesterday, on one hand, you could be talking about men's soap for 30 minutes, and then in the next hour, you're doing a photo shoot at a flag facility. It's opened my eyes to a lot of different businesses, which I think is really cool to learn about.
MB: How much time do you feel like you spend talking versus doing?
KB: More now than I used to. I feel like I talk all day.
MB: What's the best part and the worst part of your current role? Be honest.
KB: The best part is the people that we get to work with every day. I really enjoy the clients that we have. It's fun to see all of their different personalities and get to know them better as people and not just people who work on soap. And the people on our team are great. They teach me something new every day, which is a positive experience. The worst part is that sometimes it's just so fast paced that you feel like you finish one thing, and then the next one is just knocking right at the door, which is fun. But sometimes I just kinda wanna take a breath.
MB: How are you positioning out new offerings to clients in a way that makes Indie stand apart?
KB: It's really exciting. Previously, we did content creation on the Creative team, mostly lo-fi shots with an iPhone. And over the past few years, especially this year, we've seen a shift. First we saw the shift into going so hard into lo-fi and UGC and not everyone can do that. Now it's becoming a little bit tired, and we've seen the shift in the market that people are looking for more hi-fi creative. That's more intentional, with better production quality. What we've come to learn on a multitude of projects is having that mix and variety between lo-fi and hi-fi. With this new creative offering, we are building a network of partners that will help with hi-fi production so that we can be the creative strategist and make content across the board. There's a ton of different options out there. So, hopefully, we can be the shining light that can provide all of them or the select few that will help bring your marketing strategy to life in the best way.
MB: At 21, did you ever think you'd be doing what you're doing now?
KB: Well, it's an interesting question since we're related. I knew that I wanted to go into marketing. And what that looked like, I wasn't really sure. But in transparency, I picked marketing because I wanted to be in business. I thought that I would not have to deal with numbers, which was perfect. I was wrong because there are a lot of numbers and analytics that are a part of marketing every day. But when I was 21, our dad was really pushing for me to work for you, and I did not necessarily want to do that back then. So I didn't know that I would end up here, but now I wouldn't change it for anything. It's been such an incredible learning opportunity, both in a professional space and in how I manage relationships. So I think it's been great.
MB: Tell people what they really wanna know. What's it like working with your sister?
KB: I think when we first started working together, I was a contractor for a year, so I did some freelance content creation. And I always tell people that was a good test run for us to figure out if we could make it work or not. And it worked out well enough that I came on full time. I always think now, being as old as I am, how you dealt with me as an early 20 something. It was an act of love and patience. Because it's not easy to onboard someone who's new in their career anyway. Let alone someone you're related to. So I respect you for that. But I think one of my most important learnings is just to keep the noise out. And the comments about being sisters. A lot of people probably say “Oh god. She gave her sister a job.” I'm not just here, hopefully, because you're my sister. And I think at the end of the day our sister relationship is more important than our working relationship. I'm a pretty direct and open person for the most part how I'm feeling about things. This has been a huge learning opportunity for me, and I think it's helped me grow a lot.
MB: How do you ensure and partner with clients that their social media approach is aligned with their broader brand strategy?
KB: We have a great team at Indie that does both. Having someone from our strategy team on projects with us to make sure that we are aligning back to the overarching strategy from a creative perspective is a foundational element of putting creative into place. And at the end of the day, whatever piece of content you're creating, you always want it to represent your brand in the best way possible. Having your strategy as a core foundational element for everything you're doing only helps in the long run.
Trendy or Tragic
I feel that it's not really trendy anymore because it's been around for so long, and I see the point. But I love a piece of paper. So I'm half and half on that topic. It's way easier if you're having housewarming parties. You're gonna do a paperless post. You're not gonna send a group text or everyone a handwritten invitation.
Trendy. I used to hate it. I trained for a marathon earlier this year and for the first time. I feel like once you're spending so much time on it, it's kind of like another form of social media.
I like to post little pictures with my run. And I was looking at my grid view the other day on Strava. I was like, this is better than my Instagram. I think that there's definitely going to be an advertising play on there
Trendy. I think that there's a gap in the market when you're wearing jeans in the cooler months of the year that you don't wanna wear a sneaker all the time because we went so hard into the sneakers, and now it just doesn't work with everything. And sometimes you don't wanna wear a boot, so I think that a clog is comfy. But I bought the UGG clogs that are really trendy. I'm obsessed with them.
Find Kat Baker on instagram @katbakes or on LinkedIn @Kathryn Baker
As for us, follow @namedrop.pod on Instagram & LinkedIn and @molbakes on Instagram for all future episodes and insights.
