social media

Robert: It’s Robert and Brad. We’re standing outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where we’ve just had a meeting.

Brad: Yeah, it was pretty cool. We met with the Social Media Director for President Trump, spent about 15, 20 minutes with him and just talking social media and it was pretty interesting Robert because even though White House knows the importance of social media, even though we meet company after company that does it, he actually has a call every morning with the president at around 6:00, 6:30 just to talk about what we need to do in social media.

Robert: The president is savvy. Those tweets are the president’s. There’s not some body –

Brad: That’s right. You heard it here, inside scoop.

Robert: Yeah. They’re not behind the scenes writing it. They’re the president’s and then after they get the kind of marching orders of what he’s tweeting, he calls all the networks and gives them a heads up of, you know, here’s going to be the message at the White House today and this is a big change that has gone on here since I covered the White House.

It used to the news media kind of set the message of the day. Now this president shows how using social media, he sets that message and the media has to follow it and there’s a lesson there for business.

Brad: Well, it’s what we talk about all the time about controlling the message, controlling your content, driving – being proactive, not reactive and the president has it nailed. He knows exactly what that is and knows that principle probably from his business background. You know, controlling that message. The other thing that we heard a lot of was about the importance of talking the right language to your audience and his base in his party and that’s all audience speak.

Robert: And here’s the other impact we’ve seen on what – how this has affected politics. We’ve met with some candidates who are in races. What do they want to know how to do?

Brad: Exactly. They want to know how to ramp up the base, get everybody fired up. Well, we call it “poking the passion” or “firing the passion” and being sure that the message is going out in the right format and the right language. That’s audience speak.

Robert: Hey, they personally want to know, “How do I tweet it? How do I do Facebook?” That’s something really you as the owner and the CEO, that’s a big a part of your brand, you need to know how to do that.

Brad: Yeah, you really do. So that is the Clarity Clip of the Week from the White House and we’re signing off now. So have a good one, guys.

[End of transcript]

3 Tips For Business Owners To Make Their Websites Mobile Friendly

by Brad Besancon

Mobile Friendly Websites – Interacting With Your Brand

Transcript

Transcript

Brad: You better be thinking mobile first with website design. You better be thinking mobile first with photography, content. How is your social media?

You know, 60 something percent of our time online now is in social media. So how are you using this to better your brand and your connection?

Mobile Friendly Design

Robert: You have to first look, “Well, what does that look like on the mobile phone?”

Brad: On the phone, on a 4.5, 5-inch screen, not a 27-inch desktop anymore.

Robert: You as the executive and business owner, you might be still looking at the desktop. But I got to tell you something. You’re not your customer. That’s not the way they experience the world. It’s not the way they’re going to experience your product or your service.

AudienceSpeak

Brad: Yeah, it’s right back to audience speak. What is the people you’re trying to target doing? How are they interacting with your brand? How are they interacting with life? Which now we interact with life right here now.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: We don’t just come to a mall anymore and hang out. We’ve got to show on Instagram. We got to check in. We got to do all this stuff. That’s the screen between life we’re now seeing.

Robert: So here are some questions for you as a business owner. If you’re wondering what those kids downstairs are doing with your brand and social media and all, well, first off – and the developers, because you don’t speak their language. But here are some simple things that will equip you to ask the right questions.

Mobile Friendly = Mobile First

One, is it mobile first? Go look at your own website on the phone. Does it stack up? Does everything look right to you on the phone? Secondly –

Brad: I got another one. Call your customer service department and see how it works.

Mobile Friendly – Touch to Call

Robert: Yeah, yeah. So on the phone. Can I touch the phone number and call your office? Can I touch the address and it takes me –?

Mobile Friendly – Maps

Brad: Get the map.

Mobile Friendly – Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP Pages)

Robert: Immediately to the map. You would be surprised how much this is not going on. Another question I ask them is that – developers, “Are we on AMP? Are we AMP-ed? AMP-ed up?” Well, what does that mean? That means accelerated mobile pages.

Everything online –

Brad: Download.

Mobile Friendly = Pleasing Google

Robert: Yes. Everything online these days is about pleasing Google, kissing up to Google and as much as you might dislike that, they own it.

Brad: It’s the way it is.

Robert: So they’re big on a thing called “AMP” and what this means is there’s a code put on every one of the pages of your website. That’s going to mean they load on the phone, they load mobile much, much faster. Why is that important? Well, it’s because you want to please Google and you know that somewhere down the line, if I haven’t done that, well, and my competitor has, then they have an advantage on us.

Brad: Well then again, people aren’t experiencing who you are or what you’re about or anything about you on a desktop anymore.

Robert: Right.

Brad: In that scenario where I asked Robert for a recommendation, guess what Brad is going to do the minute after Robert says, “Call Bob Jones,” or whatever.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: I’m going to go look at Bob Jones right there. It’s right here now. Everything is right here that I need.

Mobile Friendly – Page Speed

Robert: So you go there. What if it just takes forever to load? The pages are not coming up and all. Well, you as the business owner/executive, hey, we’re going to give you a tip down in the bottom of the notes here of how you can go check up on the developers into doing their job. There’s a page speed test. It’s available to all developers. Obviously there’s a lot not using it.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: But it’s going to tell you. It’s going to rate your website, the mobile experience and the speed because Google is measuring how fast your page opens in milliseconds. It’s a race. But what it is about is that – do you want to frustrate your customer? It’s almost the equivalent –

Brad: It may not even be a customer.

Robert: Yeah, your prospect.

Brad: It may not even be a customer there.

Robert: It’s like leaving someone on hold when you call.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: That is the way it is.

Brad: Good start [0:03:19] [Phonetic].

Robert: That’s our Clarity Clip of the week. We will see you here in the next couple of weeks.

[End of transcript]

There’s A Screen Between You And Your Customers. Is Your Brand Present?

by Brad Besancon

Mobile First: The Screen Between Your Audience and Your Brand

Transcript

VideoTranscript

Brad: Well, hello everyone. It’s Brad and Robert with Clarity Clip again and we are sitting in NorthPark Center Mall here in Dallas, Texas and we’re – it actually is Valentine’s Day and we’re wandering around here doing some observations, some – listening to things, speak research. What are we seeing?

Robert: Well, we’re seeing couples on Valentine’s, a special moment, and they’re going, “Hey, honey. I love you,” and she’s sitting right over there.

Brad: Yeah, they’re texting.

Robert: Oh, I love you too.

Brad: It’s the screen between.

Robert: Smile, heart, heart, heart.

Brad: The screen between.

Robert: Yes.

Experiencing Life With The Screen Between

Brad: The screen between. And one of the things we’ve really noticed – I mean this isn’t new, right folks? This isn’t new. But really over the last couple of years, it has really gotten bad, if we can say bad. But what we call it now is we call it life being experienced with a screen between. We don’t just go to a kid’s event anymore. We don’t go to a football game anymore. We don’t come to the mall anymore without doing what? We’re on our phone.

Robert: Yes.

Brad: And we can’t just watch our child sing or dance. We have to video it. “What do they do with all the video?” I wonder. What do people do with all that video if they get done with it? This is so bad that I heard the social secretary for President George W. Bush talk about – it became an issue in the White House and these are big, high-end donors. They’re all aged. They’re baby boomers. They’re older and stuff and they started getting complaints at all the events for the donors and supporters that no one can see the president because everybody has got –

Brad: Everybody has got – everybody is doing this.

Robert: Yeah. So they literally – the Secret Service had a bucket as you would go in and they started collecting them. So the fact that that demographic –

Brad: It’s not millennials. It’s not just millennials.

Robert: It’s everywhere.

Brad: It’s everyone.

Robert: That’s what our clients do not understand.

Think Mobile First With Web Design

Brad: Yes. One of the things we’re also seeing, which we’ve been preaching, we’ve been talking about for years in our company is you better be thinking mobile first. With website design, you better be thinking mobile first. With photography, content.

How is your social media? You know, 60 something percent of our time online now is in social media. So how are you using this to better your brand and your connection? Because there’s no more, “Hey Robert, do you know somebody that does this?” and I just – yeah, call this guy and I just call him. It’s over.

Robert: So first off, if your team in your company and marketing, there’s – talking about a new website or they’re talking about what they do on Facebook, you have to first look, “Well, what does that look like on the mobile phone?”

Think Mobile First and Responsive Design

Brad: On the phone, on a 4.5, 5-inch screen, not a 27-inch desktop anymore.

AudienceSpeak: Communicating Your Message & Brand Through The Screen

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: We don’t just come to a mall anymore and hang out. We’ve got to show on Instagram. We got to check in. We got to do all this stuff. Mobile, mobile, mobile because we are living in a screen between lifestyle now. So you have to think, “How can I get in between my potential client or customer’s life with that screen between?”

So whatever they’re experiencing, how do I interject my brand into that screen between to really connect and converse and then ultimately convert, right? That’s what we’re here for. So that’s our Clarity Clip of the week. We will see you here in the next couple of weeks and guys, get out there and enjoy life. Put the screen between down.

Robert: Thank you.

[End of transcript]

How Social Media Amplifies Online Passion For The Ringbrothers Muscle Cars

by Brad Besancon

Passion about Hot Rods, Muscle Cars, and all things automotive overflows at SEMA 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Robert Riggs talks to Jim Ring of the Ringbrothers about the custom muscle cars they unveiled and how it sets social media on fire for their business.

Transcript

[Mike Ring of The Ringbrothers Talks Muscle Cars & Hot Rods at SEMA 2017] [03:01]

Robert Riggs: Hi, I’m Robert Riggs with Clarity and we’re here at SEMA 2017 with Mike Ring, the older half of The Ringbrothers.

Mike Ring: That’s correct.

Robert: Which I think I best describe as the Michelangelos of car customizing.

Mike: Thank you.

Robert: So let me talk to you about passion. What is the passion? You go through here, there’s tens of thousands of people in here. What is that passion?

Mike: I think you grew up with it or you’re influenced by something or someone at a very young age, and for us, it was just wanting to get out of a small town and trying to find a way to get out of there, and it was amazing.

Robert: So behind me is what I’d call an old school restoration truck customization and we baby boomers, we love that, so what was it in that car that you were doing it for yourself that knew you wanted to do it?

Mike: We’ve done so many cars and we really hadn’t been known for doing any trucks at all, and what’s nice about it is we didn’t have to get super crazy and it wasn’t to make a statement or anything, it’s just about making a cool little truck for the shop, so using the original chassis to start with was not normal for us and it was just fun, it was just fun.

Robert: So you got a new wave coming up of Millennials.

Mike: Yes.

Robert: What’s their passion and do you see them – do you see Millennials some day as older adults being your clients?

Mike: I think the Millennials are going to demand a whole different type of vehicle. I hope they do. I’m really nervous that they will just take Uber everywhere and not even want a vehicle anymore. I don’t know where it’s going but I hope they do, but I think the technology with these kids and what they’re going to want, I mean, we’re seeing it the young guys that are working for us to be able to model things like I say in CAD, and create a car maybe that’s not even been out there – it’s their dream, and really, with technology today, there’s shops like ours that can build anything.

Robert: So you see basically scratch customized cars?

Mike: Scratch-built cars, yes, I really do, I think people that have the money are going to – they have a dream and they’re going to want to be able to create a – and a lot of the young people today could probably design their own car in some way that could bring to somebody and pull it off.

Robert: So do you ever just pinch yourself and say, “Wow, how did this happen?”

Mike: Yes, I mean, I come from a town of 600 and just think that people know who you are around the world sometimes. It’s pretty crazy.

Robert: So did you ever tried to race it?

Mike: No, not yet. I’m just kind of the one that is to do the bodywork and paint. My brother loves to just tear them up and chip them up, and he doesn’t care. I get a little bit upset with that but after seeing it done, the pressure is off.

Robert: Okay, well, hey, I appreciate you talking to us and understanding passion and the Millennials.

Mike: Yes, thanks.

Robert: Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Mike: Very much.

How Social Media Souped Up The Ringbrothers Hot Rod Business

by Brad Besancon

Brad Besancon talks to Mike Ring of the Ringbrothers at SEMA 2017 about how Facebook marketing expanded their custom car business to an international market. If these Baby Boomer hot rod builders use social media, don’t you think it’s about time you started?

Transcript

Brad Besancon: Hello, everyone. It’s Brad with Clarity again and we have the honor of sitting here with Mr. Ring of Ring Brothers and we are going to talk a little bit about social media. We’re not going to talk too much about cars which is kind of odd for you, isn’t it?

Mike Ring: It is, yes. It’s the end of 2017, same line, it’s been all cars.

Brad: So yesterday, we were in a Hot Rod Association panel with you and listened to you, and you indicated how important social has become to your business in kind of bringing on the passion of the next generation. Tell me a little bit about when you guys realized that social should be a part of kind of your overall business model.

Mike: Well, I got to tell you, we were pretty late in the game. I mean social has been around – we didn’t pick up on it until probably five years ago, how important it was and I’ll tell you, it was truly important. I mean, it got us to be able to reach out and find people and have people find us that we’d never have the opportunity to get. That includes all over the world. I mean, we’ve got customers from London, England. We’ve got a customer from Russia. You can’t get that without social media.

Brad: Right, and it just helps you spread your message and what you’re doing, and your passion for cars because you guys are very unique in what you do. You guys talked about that yesterday, about how it’s your kind of model and what you do, so you realized that, and then what did you start doing? Did you just jump in there full-fledged or did you like, “Hey, what do we do with this stuff?”

Mike: It was honestly way over our head. We had to hire a company to do it. Our sales went up, everything about it was good. Today, I don’t know how you could be without it.

Brad: Yes, and so let’s talk about that. So here we are, it’s not a typical business. We heard that also in the seminar, “I don’t use social, I don’t use social,” and then here’s The Ringbrothers using socials. How has it influenced business from a standpoint – because you guys do a lot – you don’t just build cars. You do parts and some other things.

Mike: We also do collision work.

Brad: So how has that affected your overall business?

Mike: It’s tremendously, like I said, you could get customers that you could never get without it and it also allows people, to really show them what you’re doing. The followers we have right now, I mean, I don’t even know the exact numbers, a couple hundred thousand Facebook, which that’s a couple hundred thousand people. That’s a lot of audience for just kind of starting out into this.

Brad: Yes, and you never know which one is going to pick up the phone and call you and say, “Hey, man, I really liked what you did. Can you do that for me?” So let’s talk about what you are doing. How do you use, let’s say Facebook or social media now in kind of keeping that connection with your customers and your fan base?

Mike: I think just showing everybody what we’re doing from start to finish is a big part of that. It’s one thing to show somebody a final product but it gets them engaged when you’re showing them little pieces here and making them wait for the final, the final ending.

Brad: It makes them a part of it, right?

Mike: It does, it brings them around, makes them part of the build, part of the process, and I think it’s exciting.

Brad: Yes, I think it is too, and they are killing it on social so if you guys are into cars and like custom builds, get over here and watch these guys. They are doing a great job. Hey, thanks for your time.

Mike: You’re welcome.

Brad: I really appreciate it.

Mike: Thank you so much.

Brad: Congratulations on everything.

Mike: I appreciate that.

Brad: Alright.