1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,010 G'day everyone, it's Michelle J Raymond, and I am joined this week, 2 00:00:04,010 --> 00:00:08,919 listeners, by the one and only content anarchist, Ashley Sava. 3 00:00:08,969 --> 00:00:10,159 Welcome to the show. 4 00:00:10,619 --> 00:00:12,869 I am very happy to be here today. 5 00:00:13,219 --> 00:00:15,529 Now, I'm not sure where this conversation's gonna go, and I'm a 6 00:00:15,529 --> 00:00:17,599 little bit nervous, not gonna lie. 7 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:22,340 But I think we have to do some things that make us nervous when it comes to creating 8 00:00:22,340 --> 00:00:26,580 content, because otherwise we're gonna be putting people to sleep, and I know that 9 00:00:26,580 --> 00:00:29,179 that is something that you are very anti. 10 00:00:29,229 --> 00:00:30,300 Oh, definitely. 11 00:00:30,340 --> 00:00:34,509 All I wanna do is not put people to sleep, or I don't wanna be there at all. 12 00:00:35,099 --> 00:00:36,350 Yeah, exactly. 13 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:37,559 It's a waste of time. 14 00:00:37,559 --> 00:00:44,269 Now, I am excited to have this, because you are behind the Manychat Company Page 15 00:00:44,279 --> 00:00:47,139 on LinkedIn, which I am a super fan of. 16 00:00:47,160 --> 00:00:51,699 I've even dedicated an episode to it before, but I thought it'd be even 17 00:00:51,700 --> 00:00:53,649 better to get the person behind it. 18 00:00:54,020 --> 00:00:57,239 For those people who may not have come across Manychat before, can 19 00:00:57,239 --> 00:01:01,079 you just tell us about you guys and your team that's doing the work? 20 00:01:01,269 --> 00:01:02,499 Yeah, definitely. 21 00:01:02,540 --> 00:01:06,869 The way that we like to, um, identify Manychat for people who don't think that 22 00:01:06,870 --> 00:01:12,019 they've come across it is if you go on Instagram and there's a little comment 23 00:01:12,030 --> 00:01:18,690 the word XYZ and we'll send you a link, we are usually the proprietory between that. 24 00:01:18,910 --> 00:01:22,490 So we are the ones that are powering the automation, um, 25 00:01:22,490 --> 00:01:24,070 behind those type of things. 26 00:01:24,070 --> 00:01:28,510 But Manychat on a wide scale helps creators and brands and businesses 27 00:01:28,510 --> 00:01:33,639 turn comments and DMs and messages into automated conversations that can help you 28 00:01:33,639 --> 00:01:35,809 generate leads and sales and bookings. 29 00:01:35,849 --> 00:01:39,880 Um, in short, it can help brands have millions of one-to-one 30 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,099 conversations without needing millions of people behind the keyboard. 31 00:01:43,870 --> 00:01:44,950 That'd be pretty helpful. 32 00:01:44,969 --> 00:01:48,689 Now, as far as your team that's taking care of the LinkedIn portion of what 33 00:01:48,730 --> 00:01:51,610 I'm seeing, tell me who's behind that. 34 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,039 There's obviously yourself, like who else is making the magic happen? 35 00:01:55,039 --> 00:01:55,879 That would be me. 36 00:01:56,109 --> 00:01:57,740 I am the LinkedIn brand of Manychat. 37 00:01:58,710 --> 00:02:03,270 Um, we do have occasional help from design, um, when we do need it, 38 00:02:03,300 --> 00:02:07,760 although there has been a change just in how often we are using 39 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:09,550 that kind of polish to do things. 40 00:02:09,550 --> 00:02:14,740 We had design come in and do our new logo, which is cracked. 41 00:02:15,869 --> 00:02:21,189 And then the cover photo behind that Page too, which was more of 42 00:02:21,199 --> 00:02:24,709 a corporate look before, but now it is quite different as well. 43 00:02:24,759 --> 00:02:28,769 But yeah, it is me doing all of the commenting and the content 44 00:02:28,769 --> 00:02:34,299 creation and, um, managing our DMs, which has become a lot more of 45 00:02:34,299 --> 00:02:36,159 the job than I expected it to be. 46 00:02:36,829 --> 00:02:38,029 It sure is, right? 47 00:02:38,089 --> 00:02:41,599 A- and so I just wanna set that scene importantly because there 48 00:02:41,599 --> 00:02:45,289 are people out there that say, "We can't do that," or, "That's okay 49 00:02:45,289 --> 00:02:46,569 for them, they've got huge teams." 50 00:02:46,569 --> 00:02:48,469 So we've taken that excuse away. 51 00:02:48,839 --> 00:02:53,359 But I'm gonna rewind the clock for people because three months ago, I had a look 52 00:02:53,359 --> 00:02:58,579 at the timing, three months ago, I wake up, and thank God for the LinkedIn feed 53 00:02:58,579 --> 00:03:02,569 sorting things by topic, 'cause it's the one time that I was like, "Yes, loving 54 00:03:02,569 --> 00:03:07,229 this new feed." It always shows me things about Company Pages, and in this case, 55 00:03:07,309 --> 00:03:12,529 the post that I saw from the Manychat Company Page was essentially this. 56 00:03:13,029 --> 00:03:17,109 "This is a Company Page. It's not going to act like a Company Page 57 00:03:17,129 --> 00:03:22,579 anymore. We're breaking this profile on purpose in public," and on it went. 58 00:03:23,149 --> 00:03:28,039 Talk me through what was happening with the Page before that moment that 59 00:03:28,059 --> 00:03:30,759 led you to, putting that post out. 60 00:03:31,269 --> 00:03:31,829 Yeah. 61 00:03:31,829 --> 00:03:35,989 Um, my thing is, I do think that most Company Pages have 62 00:03:36,089 --> 00:03:38,559 become a kind of office lobby. 63 00:03:38,699 --> 00:03:42,409 Oh, they're beautifully vacuumed, there might be a nice plant in the 64 00:03:42,409 --> 00:03:46,419 corner, probably somebody replaced a motivational poster, but no one 65 00:03:46,419 --> 00:03:48,249 actually comes there to hang out. 66 00:03:48,679 --> 00:03:52,319 Companies think that the purpose of a Company Page is to tell everybody 67 00:03:52,319 --> 00:03:56,999 how amped they are about Q3 or to congratulate their employees on 68 00:03:56,999 --> 00:04:00,810 their anniversaries or talk about things that you could much easily 69 00:04:00,810 --> 00:04:02,969 share in your own internal channels. 70 00:04:03,509 --> 00:04:08,099 But our audience is creators, so meanwhile, the creators, the people that 71 00:04:08,100 --> 00:04:12,030 we actually are building our product for, are out there on the streets, and 72 00:04:12,030 --> 00:04:16,160 they're sharing their wins and failing publicly and making predictions and 73 00:04:16,180 --> 00:04:21,370 fighting and swapping advice and building audiences, much cooler things than 74 00:04:21,370 --> 00:04:23,219 we're, like, letting out on LinkedIn. 75 00:04:23,889 --> 00:04:28,229 And we were not involved in those conversations when it came to LinkedIn. 76 00:04:28,609 --> 00:04:34,299 Historically, Employer Brand did own, um, the LinkedIn Manychat Page, which 77 00:04:34,300 --> 00:04:38,500 makes sense because their mission is hiring, and their job is to make people 78 00:04:38,509 --> 00:04:42,830 think, "Well, maybe I should apply for a job at Manychat." Marketing, 79 00:04:42,830 --> 00:04:44,619 of course, has a different mission. 80 00:04:44,660 --> 00:04:46,770 I don't need somebody to wanna work at Manychat. 81 00:04:47,186 --> 00:04:51,036 I would like to have cool people there, and I hope that what we're doing makes 82 00:04:51,036 --> 00:04:56,056 more people wanna come, but I need people to wanna hear what Manychat thinks. 83 00:04:56,676 --> 00:05:01,476 So I wanted creators to intentionally visit our Page because they knew that 84 00:05:01,476 --> 00:05:07,586 they can come to us to find creator news or opinions or funky experiments or 85 00:05:07,586 --> 00:05:11,836 cool customer stories or conversations that are actually worth their time, not 86 00:05:12,226 --> 00:05:17,136 like another HR post happy international whatever day graphic, whatever that is. 87 00:05:17,196 --> 00:05:20,096 There's nothing the matter with employer branding, of course. 88 00:05:20,146 --> 00:05:24,046 It's just solving a totally different problem, and the LinkedIn Page, in my 89 00:05:24,046 --> 00:05:28,626 opinion, had way too much unrealised potential to just leave there 90 00:05:29,070 --> 00:05:30,870 . You've hit the first nail on the head. 91 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,510 Who owns the Page is a question that I'm asking people when 92 00:05:34,510 --> 00:05:36,180 I'm doing audit and strategies. 93 00:05:36,220 --> 00:05:39,690 And you might think it's such a simple question to answer, but in 94 00:05:39,690 --> 00:05:42,080 my experience, absolutely isn't. 95 00:05:42,090 --> 00:05:45,670 It's either everyone or no one seems to be the answer. 96 00:05:45,670 --> 00:05:51,250 And I think that is literally where things start coming unraveled, followed 97 00:05:51,260 --> 00:05:53,630 by what's the goal of the Page? 98 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:57,810 And you've already said, like, within your business there might've been at least two. 99 00:05:57,810 --> 00:06:01,490 I'm sure the sales team probably had something else to say as well. 100 00:06:01,530 --> 00:06:06,740 But ultimately, this is what, for me, why I'm having these types of conversations 101 00:06:06,750 --> 00:06:10,790 is you don't get to do the cool stuff, if we don't all agree on what the goal 102 00:06:10,790 --> 00:06:12,860 is up front and who's gonna run the show. 103 00:06:12,930 --> 00:06:17,650 Because it is the thing that is literally making more Company Pages 104 00:06:17,650 --> 00:06:19,550 come unstuck than anything else. 105 00:06:19,660 --> 00:06:23,199 I'm so glad that you shared that because I, I think getting 106 00:06:23,199 --> 00:06:27,550 that agreement is probably the hardest part, I would imagine. 107 00:06:27,659 --> 00:06:28,270 Oh, yeah. 108 00:06:28,270 --> 00:06:29,979 This was going on for a while. 109 00:06:30,470 --> 00:06:31,110 Yeah. 110 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:31,580 Right? 111 00:06:31,599 --> 00:06:34,679 So, and I'm gonna dig into that a, a little bit later. 112 00:06:34,709 --> 00:06:37,050 If people aren't following you on LinkedIn, they are going to be 113 00:06:37,050 --> 00:06:40,140 doing it after this conversation 'cause your content I always love. 114 00:06:40,140 --> 00:06:46,169 It makes me think, feel, smile, like, just sometimes go, "Did she say that?" Like- 115 00:06:46,169 --> 00:06:49,340 … there's a little bit of everything depending on the day, and I, I love it. 116 00:06:49,340 --> 00:06:53,440 But when I was reading your profile, you describe your job 117 00:06:53,450 --> 00:06:56,480 as making content do things. 118 00:06:56,570 --> 00:07:03,050 What did you need the Manychat Company Page to do in relation to getting 119 00:07:03,050 --> 00:07:05,230 content to actually do something? 120 00:07:05,606 --> 00:07:10,146 I have, I think, what many people would think is an unusual metric in, 121 00:07:10,156 --> 00:07:12,356 in that I don't care if people find us. 122 00:07:12,576 --> 00:07:15,316 I care whether they think to involve us. 123 00:07:15,706 --> 00:07:20,176 Before we would get tagged maybe when an automation was broken or 124 00:07:20,176 --> 00:07:22,416 people had a product question. 125 00:07:22,786 --> 00:07:29,356 All of that is fine and dandy, but I wanted Manychat to be included in things 126 00:07:29,356 --> 00:07:32,626 like people are in the middle of a debate about creator burnout, and they would 127 00:07:32,626 --> 00:07:36,966 say, like, I don't know, "Tag Manychat, I wanna know what they think." And that 128 00:07:36,976 --> 00:07:42,246 wasn't happening at all, and I think that LinkedIn, the way that it is now, we have 129 00:07:42,246 --> 00:07:48,066 this big opportunity to get included if you're doing the legwork to be thought of. 130 00:07:48,496 --> 00:07:51,756 It's a completely different relationship too, because you're not just being 131 00:07:51,756 --> 00:07:53,636 thought of anymore for customer support. 132 00:07:53,726 --> 00:07:55,476 You're becoming part of the culture. 133 00:07:55,716 --> 00:07:59,356 And for us, we wanted to become a part of the culture of creators. 134 00:07:59,526 --> 00:08:05,296 Oh, I want creators on there arguing with us or agreeing with us or disagreeing with 135 00:08:05,296 --> 00:08:10,426 us or stealing our ideas or telling us who we should interview or pitching us a hot 136 00:08:10,436 --> 00:08:12,506 take or maybe even inviting us to things. 137 00:08:12,876 --> 00:08:16,296 If nobody misses your opinion when you're absent, you haven't actually 138 00:08:16,296 --> 00:08:18,266 built a voice in my opinion. 139 00:08:18,662 --> 00:08:22,912 I would agree with that so I had zero clue what Manychat was before. 140 00:08:22,912 --> 00:08:24,212 I'm not over on Instagram. 141 00:08:24,382 --> 00:08:25,292 I had never heard of it. 142 00:08:25,292 --> 00:08:26,672 I knew you personally. 143 00:08:26,942 --> 00:08:31,092 Had no clue what the product did, and it's been really funny because 144 00:08:31,092 --> 00:08:34,292 I've been sharing about the Page and, you know, big fan of it. 145 00:08:34,532 --> 00:08:40,102 Um, now my audience is asking me, "Do I trust your brand? Should they go and 146 00:08:40,112 --> 00:08:44,942 check it out?" They'd been considering it, and now they wanted to know 147 00:08:44,972 --> 00:08:49,092 because they trust me, and I obviously had been talking about you guys. 148 00:08:49,092 --> 00:08:52,182 Then all of a sudden now there are people that are reaching out, probably testing 149 00:08:52,182 --> 00:08:56,042 your product, that I was like, "Yeah, you should go and do it," because if it's 150 00:08:56,042 --> 00:08:59,562 anything like the effort you're putting into a Page, like I can normally tell 151 00:08:59,832 --> 00:09:03,422 if people care about their customers, they care about their Company Page. 152 00:09:03,662 --> 00:09:08,782 If they don't, it is, I'm gonna say it's like the internal notice board. 153 00:09:08,782 --> 00:09:09,972 You know, I'm gonna go one more level. 154 00:09:09,972 --> 00:09:12,722 It's like we wanna post and tell you about this because that's what 155 00:09:12,722 --> 00:09:16,442 we wanna say, and we actually don't really care what you want to hear. 156 00:09:16,722 --> 00:09:18,781 We don't really care what you say in response. 157 00:09:19,102 --> 00:09:20,932 We don't care if you don't even respond. 158 00:09:20,942 --> 00:09:24,672 It is literally what we wanna broadcast at you, and your Page 159 00:09:24,692 --> 00:09:26,192 is completely the opposite. 160 00:09:26,282 --> 00:09:29,512 And again, it's the gold star example that I use, not just because you're 161 00:09:29,512 --> 00:09:32,042 on this podcast, 'cause I've been talking about it for three months. 162 00:09:32,322 --> 00:09:35,682 I was sharing about it as an example at Social Media Marketing World. 163 00:09:35,702 --> 00:09:40,072 I was like, "You guys need to go and check this out because it is in 164 00:09:40,142 --> 00:09:45,242 action living your brand," not just, "Hey, we're gonna break the Page. 165 00:09:45,252 --> 00:09:50,171 Go us." It was more than just breaking it for breaking its sake, you know? 166 00:09:50,171 --> 00:09:56,031 A- and so this is why I, I wanted to talk about this because you're living it, not 167 00:09:56,031 --> 00:09:57,712 just saying you're gonna do something. 168 00:09:58,128 --> 00:10:03,158 Yeah, and I just don't think that we value dialogue on social media 169 00:10:03,158 --> 00:10:04,908 the way that we should be doing it. 170 00:10:04,948 --> 00:10:06,228 Like, it, it is in the name. 171 00:10:06,228 --> 00:10:10,578 I know people think of LinkedIn as a job board, and a lot of people don't think of 172 00:10:10,578 --> 00:10:13,458 it much beyond that, which is unfortunate. 173 00:10:13,638 --> 00:10:15,488 I do think it is my favourite platform. 174 00:10:15,488 --> 00:10:17,208 Not that I don't complain about it all the time. 175 00:10:17,208 --> 00:10:19,428 There are a lot of things they could be doing differently, and 176 00:10:19,428 --> 00:10:21,588 they have heard from me on them at least I think they have. 177 00:10:22,148 --> 00:10:26,248 But, you know, like, what's the point of, uh, acting like you care about 178 00:10:26,248 --> 00:10:30,648 social media if all you're doing is shouting at people and not involving 179 00:10:30,648 --> 00:10:32,948 them into actual conversations? 180 00:10:32,968 --> 00:10:38,128 And those dialogue moments that we get become new content, and that 181 00:10:38,138 --> 00:10:42,108 helps me in my job because my primary job is I'm a content marketing 182 00:10:42,108 --> 00:10:46,928 manager at the company, and I focus on the education and activation 183 00:10:47,098 --> 00:10:49,168 and internal content at Manychat. 184 00:10:49,518 --> 00:10:54,098 And now I have this too, and this is actually helping guide a lot of that now 185 00:10:54,394 --> 00:10:59,454 . Yeah, there's just an untapped, just world of ideas that will come out if 186 00:10:59,454 --> 00:11:03,634 your community's actually talking to you or you're involved in conversations. 187 00:11:03,664 --> 00:11:08,284 And I think what you've been able to do is get the wording and how other 188 00:11:08,284 --> 00:11:12,684 people describe their pain or what's going on, and really speak to that. 189 00:11:12,684 --> 00:11:17,564 Because I think when you read your content, it feels like you know creators, 190 00:11:17,594 --> 00:11:22,114 like y- you- we know what it's like and I think it's that relatability, it's 191 00:11:22,114 --> 00:11:26,274 the empathy, it's, all of those kind of feeling words which I love, which 192 00:11:26,294 --> 00:11:29,144 most corporate Pages are devoid of. 193 00:11:29,164 --> 00:11:33,054 Like, they are just- … heartless, soulless, Pages. 194 00:11:33,054 --> 00:11:37,494 And then we go, "Oh, nobody's engaging with Pages. Company Pages are dead." Yeah, 195 00:11:37,494 --> 00:11:42,254 well, you stripped the soul out of them, and then you wondered what's going on. 196 00:11:42,254 --> 00:11:45,440 But I know that there are gonna be some people that might go and 197 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:48,710 check out the Page and see what you guys are doing, and they are 198 00:11:48,710 --> 00:11:50,460 gonna be rocking in a corner going- 199 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:55,270 "There is no way I can do that. I would get the sack if I did that." How did 200 00:11:55,270 --> 00:11:57,520 you make that magic happen internally? 201 00:11:57,530 --> 00:12:00,410 What were the objections that were coming up, whether they were 202 00:12:00,410 --> 00:12:04,040 perceived risks or real risks, that you had to overcome before the 203 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:05,440 business is going, "You know what? 204 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:06,910 We trust you, Ashley. 205 00:12:07,260 --> 00:12:09,280 Go forth, break the Company Page. 206 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:12,920 Let's do this new thing." I don't reckon that that happened 207 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:16,800 just in a one conversation overnight "Please can I do this?" 208 00:12:17,250 --> 00:12:23,120 No, this has been, the talk of it went on the end of 2025, and the 209 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:25,290 funny part was it wasn't my idea. 210 00:12:25,290 --> 00:12:30,630 I know people generally at the company and beyond thought that I was the one 211 00:12:30,630 --> 00:12:35,060 who launched that, but it was actually our Chief Marketing Officer, Ido Mart, 212 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:40,290 who came to me late November last year and was like, "Why are you not the one 213 00:12:40,300 --> 00:12:41,990 that's managing our LinkedIn Page?" 214 00:12:42,020 --> 00:12:46,685 And I was like, "Is that an option?" At the time I was- Primarily- Excellent 215 00:12:46,705 --> 00:12:51,345 … they only let me touch before this the weekly LinkedIn newsletter, um, 216 00:12:51,355 --> 00:12:55,235 which we use to promote things like our favourite passion project, which 217 00:12:55,245 --> 00:12:58,945 is our Chronically Online magazine, which plug, now Webby winning. 218 00:12:59,265 --> 00:13:00,815 I was able to use it for that. 219 00:13:00,825 --> 00:13:05,215 But other than that, the leash was on me tightly because employer brand 220 00:13:05,215 --> 00:13:06,735 was the one that did everything else. 221 00:13:06,745 --> 00:13:10,405 So I was allowed to do that and comment on things about that, 222 00:13:10,455 --> 00:13:11,685 and then that was kind of it. 223 00:13:12,205 --> 00:13:14,515 Other than that that was the only thing- Wow … I touched. 224 00:13:14,715 --> 00:13:19,235 And that was how it was the entire time Manychat was around, is that 225 00:13:19,495 --> 00:13:22,895 nobody but employer brand was doing anything on our LinkedIn Page. 226 00:13:23,195 --> 00:13:27,632 But Ito thought based on what was going on on LinkedIn, especially things 227 00:13:27,632 --> 00:13:31,282 with, um, the fact that they were all of a sudden at that point the comment 228 00:13:31,342 --> 00:13:34,572 engagement metrics were showing, or you would actually find out at that 229 00:13:34,572 --> 00:13:37,692 point finally, I think LinkedIn should have done it a long time ago, how 230 00:13:37,692 --> 00:13:40,162 many views your comment actually got. 231 00:13:40,332 --> 00:13:43,702 And when you look at things like that and the fact that we were kind of neglecting 232 00:13:43,702 --> 00:13:48,372 that game totally, he thought that I would be a good individual to come in and 233 00:13:48,372 --> 00:13:49,962 kind of take the Page over from there. 234 00:13:50,322 --> 00:13:53,762 I would say the biggest hurdle wasn't convincing leadership, because I did 235 00:13:53,762 --> 00:13:58,378 have leadership buy-in, but it was the ownership thing because employer brand had 236 00:13:58,488 --> 00:14:00,258 always owned it from the very beginning. 237 00:14:00,528 --> 00:14:02,888 They had built their own processes around it. 238 00:14:03,378 --> 00:14:06,208 The conversation wasn't like, "Oh, you guys are doing this 239 00:14:06,228 --> 00:14:08,048 completely wrong," which it wasn't. 240 00:14:08,048 --> 00:14:11,368 They were doing what it was that the goals that they were attempting to attain 241 00:14:11,368 --> 00:14:15,288 at the time, but it was me kind of going in there and going, "We're trying to 242 00:14:15,288 --> 00:14:16,978 accomplish something totally different. 243 00:14:17,248 --> 00:14:19,578 We don't want to just get talent interested. 244 00:14:19,578 --> 00:14:25,515 We wanna recruit attention." And it took a long time to talk them into, um, 245 00:14:25,625 --> 00:14:27,795 being okay with losing that channel. 246 00:14:28,035 --> 00:14:30,015 And of course there's a little give and take. 247 00:14:30,015 --> 00:14:34,805 I do help from time to time to get promotion going for their employer brand 248 00:14:34,825 --> 00:14:40,525 content when we can, but when I'm posting it now, I'm thinking of it as a creator. 249 00:14:40,535 --> 00:14:42,455 Like, why would a creator care about this? 250 00:14:42,455 --> 00:14:45,715 That's the angle it goes through before any of that content goes up now. 251 00:14:46,155 --> 00:14:52,205 Um, my big thing was we wanted creators voluntarily coming back to our Page, and 252 00:14:52,225 --> 00:14:56,325 I kind of already was lucky that I had proof that I know how to do this because 253 00:14:56,365 --> 00:14:58,515 I've done this with my own audience. 254 00:14:58,565 --> 00:15:02,575 And I think the majority of the company knows that that is a big part of my life. 255 00:15:02,985 --> 00:15:05,925 Um, I've always treated LinkedIn like an actual social network, 256 00:15:06,145 --> 00:15:07,655 not like an online waiting room. 257 00:15:07,665 --> 00:15:11,515 So people internally had watched me do it and knew that I could handle 258 00:15:11,515 --> 00:15:16,792 it, which I think made the leap a lot less scary Although I am pretty sure, 259 00:15:17,532 --> 00:15:21,112 I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that there was at least one meeting 260 00:15:21,112 --> 00:15:24,362 at Manychat where somebody wondered if letting me near the corporate account 261 00:15:24,612 --> 00:15:26,502 violated international treaties. 262 00:15:28,179 --> 00:15:31,999 Look, if they didn't have that conversation, I don't think you were 263 00:15:31,999 --> 00:15:36,589 doing your job properly- … because it does skate sometimes to that 264 00:15:36,589 --> 00:15:39,069 line, and I love it for doing that. 265 00:15:39,079 --> 00:15:42,699 But I mean, that is something that I know people out there 266 00:15:42,759 --> 00:15:44,939 are gonna be where that line is. 267 00:15:44,939 --> 00:15:49,119 You know, I, I speak to people in similar roles to you around the world that are 268 00:15:49,119 --> 00:15:53,089 like by the time it goes to the legal team to approve it there's about 20 269 00:15:53,089 --> 00:15:54,499 different people all have an opinion. 270 00:15:54,499 --> 00:15:57,389 By the time it comes back, forget about trends, forget about 271 00:15:57,389 --> 00:16:00,979 anything cool, anything fun, anything with any personality. 272 00:16:01,239 --> 00:16:04,619 There is a definite fear that it will- … break the whole brand. 273 00:16:04,669 --> 00:16:08,849 Like, it will literally destroy everything in the business 274 00:16:08,859 --> 00:16:10,459 that anyone's ever created. 275 00:16:10,499 --> 00:16:14,889 And I always wonder, like, what makes you so insecure about your actual business 276 00:16:14,969 --> 00:16:17,389 that you think that a post could do it? 277 00:16:17,389 --> 00:16:20,729 And, and I'm not saying that there aren't examples out there where people just got 278 00:16:20,729 --> 00:16:26,029 it totally wrong and tried to do something fun or cool and just were tone deaf and, 279 00:16:26,049 --> 00:16:28,289 there's gotta be some processes involved. 280 00:16:28,289 --> 00:16:29,569 It's not just a free-for-all. 281 00:16:29,759 --> 00:16:31,949 And this is where your experience comes into it. 282 00:16:31,999 --> 00:16:35,359 but it was interesting to see that commenting has become such 283 00:16:35,379 --> 00:16:36,509 a big part of your strategy. 284 00:16:36,509 --> 00:16:40,349 So it's not just content, it's also commenting. 285 00:16:40,889 --> 00:16:43,929 And you did say on that post, I'm gonna keep coming back to that post 286 00:16:43,929 --> 00:16:47,429 over and over 'cause it literally is like something that I've saved that 287 00:16:47,429 --> 00:16:49,159 I keep referring back to for people. 288 00:16:49,339 --> 00:16:51,226 It also said, it also said, and we've spoken about it, that the 289 00:16:51,226 --> 00:16:55,176 Page would spend more time in other people's comment sections. 290 00:16:55,576 --> 00:16:58,966 How did that fit into the strategy that you were coming up, and how 291 00:16:58,966 --> 00:17:02,266 do you guide the team on where to show up and how to show up? 292 00:17:02,276 --> 00:17:04,776 'Cause it's a particular style of comment that you have. 293 00:17:04,806 --> 00:17:06,856 Is it just you, and so therefore it's easy? 294 00:17:07,116 --> 00:17:09,156 But what happens if somebody else had to do it? 295 00:17:09,196 --> 00:17:13,356 How do you con- you know, like, not control it, but make it, like, a safe 296 00:17:13,356 --> 00:17:15,886 process for them so, the brand lands? 297 00:17:16,223 --> 00:17:17,803 Yeah, definitely. 298 00:17:18,003 --> 00:17:22,043 From the top of that question I think we have to get past the 299 00:17:22,043 --> 00:17:25,903 idea, like, in the company that, um, social media is broadcasting, 300 00:17:25,903 --> 00:17:27,183 which we talked a little bit about. 301 00:17:27,533 --> 00:17:29,053 It is not, or it shouldn't be. 302 00:17:29,053 --> 00:17:31,763 It should be, attending the party, maybe we can call it. 303 00:17:32,063 --> 00:17:35,583 Imagine somebody who only speaks when they're standing behind a podium with a 304 00:17:35,583 --> 00:17:38,901 microphone, and then they leave And they don't talk to anybody after, and they 305 00:17:38,901 --> 00:17:40,341 don't let anybody ask them questions. 306 00:17:40,361 --> 00:17:41,911 Would you invite them back? 307 00:17:42,511 --> 00:17:45,011 But that's how most brands behave. 308 00:17:45,811 --> 00:17:45,831 Yeah. 309 00:17:45,871 --> 00:17:50,131 So we wanted Manychat to become recognisable even on days when 310 00:17:50,141 --> 00:17:52,088 we don't publish anything. 311 00:17:52,298 --> 00:17:55,798 That means we don't have to publish more than three times a week. 312 00:17:55,818 --> 00:17:59,908 We can if we want to, but we should be able to get as much engagement 313 00:17:59,908 --> 00:18:04,438 by visiting other creators' content that they have going up there 314 00:18:04,608 --> 00:18:06,978 and leaving a valuable content. 315 00:18:07,268 --> 00:18:10,998 To have people constantly bumping into us is kind of what we're looking 316 00:18:10,998 --> 00:18:16,578 for, to have people and creators think, "Oh yeah, Manychat is all over 317 00:18:16,578 --> 00:18:18,498 LinkedIn." Like, that's ideal for me. 318 00:18:18,788 --> 00:18:21,978 But I never wanna leave a comment that only benefits Manychat. 319 00:18:22,098 --> 00:18:27,508 I want to leave comments people would actually enjoy reading, even if they just 320 00:18:27,518 --> 00:18:30,538 tuned in for a minute and they didn't know who it was coming from, or they 321 00:18:30,538 --> 00:18:32,008 never looked at our profile picture. 322 00:18:32,284 --> 00:18:36,884 Maybe we add data when we can, or insight, or maybe we ask a better 323 00:18:36,884 --> 00:18:39,184 question, or maybe we make people laugh. 324 00:18:39,474 --> 00:18:43,724 If your comment could've been replaced by like, "Great post," like quit 325 00:18:43,754 --> 00:18:46,154 wasting people's electricity generally. 326 00:18:46,314 --> 00:18:50,384 Is, is… don't think we need any more of that, just like I don't think 327 00:18:50,384 --> 00:18:55,094 we need any more comments that are clearly AI generated just going to tell 328 00:18:55,094 --> 00:18:57,314 you exactly what y- you just told me. 329 00:18:57,734 --> 00:18:59,094 That thing needs to go. 330 00:18:59,384 --> 00:19:03,296 But I think just looking at it like It is entertainment. 331 00:19:03,336 --> 00:19:07,096 We want to entertain people and we wanna educate people, but nobody 332 00:19:07,096 --> 00:19:10,536 cares about being educated if they're not entertained, either. 333 00:19:10,676 --> 00:19:15,466 With me doing everything at the moment, I know, at least I hope that 334 00:19:15,466 --> 00:19:17,566 it won't al- always be me one day. 335 00:19:17,626 --> 00:19:20,296 I would like to have a little bit of help eventually. 336 00:19:20,516 --> 00:19:23,016 This is actually not my only job at the company. 337 00:19:23,486 --> 00:19:26,606 Although I do show up all the time and I'm all over the place, like i- 338 00:19:26,606 --> 00:19:30,126 it would be cool to have people that would be able to pitch in and do what 339 00:19:30,126 --> 00:19:34,716 I'm doing without having to ask me if everything was okay, which is why I do 340 00:19:34,726 --> 00:19:37,342 have, like, a tone of voice document. 341 00:19:37,506 --> 00:19:42,366 That way if tomorrow I get hit by a van and flattened and die on the spot 342 00:19:42,436 --> 00:19:46,906 hopefully people can pick up the tone of voice and go too bad Ashley's gone, but 343 00:19:46,906 --> 00:19:51,716 we'll carry on." And then maybe talk about me in hushed, reverent tones later on. 344 00:19:52,192 --> 00:19:56,402 Oh, they probably would, as it's an AI commenting, you know, sponsored 345 00:19:56,402 --> 00:19:58,852 van that goes past "Bye, Ashley." 346 00:19:59,192 --> 00:20:00,312 They would move on the next day. 347 00:20:00,312 --> 00:20:00,772 It would be fine. 348 00:20:02,172 --> 00:20:03,502 The world keeps spinning. 349 00:20:03,512 --> 00:20:07,612 But, I, I think that's the, the funny thing here is, you know, I can just 350 00:20:07,612 --> 00:20:10,682 imagine… Sorry, I'm stuck, you know, imagining what this van's doing and 351 00:20:11,132 --> 00:20:12,792 you just like giving a little wave. 352 00:20:13,042 --> 00:20:13,942 "Don't forget me." 353 00:20:13,992 --> 00:20:14,022 But- Yeah. 354 00:20:14,292 --> 00:20:16,042 "Bye everyone. Bye LinkedIn." 355 00:20:16,762 --> 00:20:17,372 Yeah. 356 00:20:17,382 --> 00:20:22,292 It, it's been fun, and I think this is the thing, is trying to just 357 00:20:22,312 --> 00:20:27,762 realise that there's so much power in showing up to help other people, you 358 00:20:27,762 --> 00:20:29,472 know, and add to the conversation. 359 00:20:29,472 --> 00:20:33,302 If I was to sum up what you just said, it's like adding to the conversation, 360 00:20:33,302 --> 00:20:37,202 not showing up just to say, "Hi, here we are. Someone told us to use 361 00:20:37,202 --> 00:20:40,352 the search bar with the keywords to get involved in conversations." 362 00:20:40,652 --> 00:20:42,112 You're not adding to anything. 363 00:20:42,122 --> 00:20:46,251 You're just becoming like the AI comments and- you know, no one 364 00:20:46,251 --> 00:20:47,551 needs more of those in their life. 365 00:20:47,601 --> 00:20:48,501 Let's just say that. 366 00:20:48,511 --> 00:20:53,601 Nobody needs more AI comments in their life, and I still do not understand 367 00:20:53,851 --> 00:20:57,701 why any human being on the face of this planet thinks that they're a good idea. 368 00:20:57,751 --> 00:20:59,081 Do you wanna talk about jail? 369 00:20:59,301 --> 00:21:02,331 I could bring that in here if you like, the LinkedIn jail moment. 370 00:21:02,331 --> 00:21:02,881 Oh, my God. 371 00:21:02,881 --> 00:21:03,841 Oh, yes. 372 00:21:03,921 --> 00:21:04,981 Tell me what happened. 373 00:21:05,301 --> 00:21:09,461 So the day after that post went out and we were like, "We're gonna be doing this," 374 00:21:10,011 --> 00:21:14,233 the next day- I went to LinkedIn jail, Manychat went, went to LinkedIn jail 375 00:21:14,433 --> 00:21:17,803 for over-commenting on external posts. 376 00:21:18,173 --> 00:21:22,593 And I have never got to the bottom of what too many comments is. 377 00:21:22,593 --> 00:21:26,153 I have escalated that many, many times, and they have never told 378 00:21:26,153 --> 00:21:27,503 me what the magic number is. 379 00:21:27,653 --> 00:21:30,893 We have never been in jail again either, even though I don't think 380 00:21:30,903 --> 00:21:32,783 that we have commented any less. 381 00:21:33,103 --> 00:21:34,273 But I don't know. 382 00:21:34,483 --> 00:21:37,493 I wish… If you could ever find that out, 'cause you got the high-up connections- 383 00:21:37,503 --> 00:21:37,533 I do. 384 00:21:37,543 --> 00:21:38,343 Let me know. 385 00:21:38,783 --> 00:21:39,273 I do. 386 00:21:39,323 --> 00:21:40,033 It was hilarious. 387 00:21:40,033 --> 00:21:43,553 I mean, for people who don't know, like, m- after that post blew up, 388 00:21:43,573 --> 00:21:47,453 and it did blow up, the post, like the gold star post, when it blew 389 00:21:47,453 --> 00:21:52,073 up, like you guys were responding to everything, every repost, every mention. 390 00:21:52,073 --> 00:21:53,933 It was like hardcore. 391 00:21:53,973 --> 00:21:56,943 Like, I can imagine you sitting at that keyboard, caffeined up to the 392 00:21:56,943 --> 00:21:58,143 gills, like, "Gotta keep going. 393 00:21:58,143 --> 00:21:58,488 Gotta keep typing." 394 00:21:58,488 --> 00:21:59,573 I had my newsboy hat on. 395 00:21:59,643 --> 00:22:00,693 It was- Ex- … lovely. 396 00:22:01,093 --> 00:22:02,263 It was crazy. 397 00:22:02,313 --> 00:22:06,453 A- and literally, it… they said, "That's it. That's enough. No more comments," 398 00:22:06,453 --> 00:22:09,883 which I, I think was just, you know, the icing on the cake, so to speak. 399 00:22:09,913 --> 00:22:13,893 But I have a question for you, . What's actually happened for the business? 400 00:22:13,903 --> 00:22:17,713 What have you noticed, in the way that people are maybe responding? 401 00:22:17,793 --> 00:22:20,243 Are you getting the things that you were setting out to 402 00:22:20,243 --> 00:22:21,823 do from a business perspective? 403 00:22:21,833 --> 00:22:24,773 'Cause, you know, I'm sure that there's some skeptics that listen 404 00:22:24,773 --> 00:22:25,613 that go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. 405 00:22:25,613 --> 00:22:26,343 Okay, it's cool. 406 00:22:26,343 --> 00:22:26,823 It's fun. 407 00:22:26,823 --> 00:22:29,543 It's whatever," but is it generating anything for the 408 00:22:29,543 --> 00:22:30,883 business at the end of the day? 409 00:22:31,180 --> 00:22:31,580 Okay. 410 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:32,490 Definitely. 411 00:22:32,670 --> 00:22:36,960 Now, just metric-wise, if we were only minding about that, which you 412 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:40,800 kind of have to a little bit, because when you take over an account like 413 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,800 that, generally the company, no matter how many good things are going, 414 00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:45,580 they want like the number, number. 415 00:22:45,580 --> 00:22:48,810 So, the followers went up a lot in three months. 416 00:22:48,860 --> 00:22:52,740 Thousands up, which is the highest we had ever had of that many people 417 00:22:52,740 --> 00:22:54,210 in that short of a window coming up. 418 00:22:54,786 --> 00:22:57,836 Newsletter engagement climbed a ton. 419 00:22:58,206 --> 00:23:02,396 We have been able to get a lot of interest in things that we were doing, 420 00:23:02,406 --> 00:23:07,126 like we had, it just closed, but there was a contest for a billboard a creator 421 00:23:07,126 --> 00:23:11,616 to basically enter this Instagram or TikTok video, and they would have a 422 00:23:11,616 --> 00:23:17,346 chance to, um, basically get their face on a billboard in New York City. 423 00:23:17,386 --> 00:23:17,576 Amazing. 424 00:23:17,816 --> 00:23:21,986 Like, a lot of that was, we got a lot of contestants into that from LinkedIn, 425 00:23:21,996 --> 00:23:25,366 which even though you can't use a LinkedIn video, we have a lot of audience 426 00:23:25,376 --> 00:23:30,206 that are actively creating content on Instagram and TikTok that use LinkedIn 427 00:23:30,206 --> 00:23:32,826 now too, um, especially for videos. 428 00:23:32,846 --> 00:23:36,716 But we've had unusually high post engagement. 429 00:23:36,716 --> 00:23:40,506 We have unusually high activity in comments of course. 430 00:23:40,906 --> 00:23:44,396 Um, again, went to jail for too many external comments one time. 431 00:23:44,686 --> 00:23:46,366 People come back to the Page. 432 00:23:46,426 --> 00:23:51,506 But my favourite KPI doesn't exist in LinkedIn analytics at all. 433 00:23:51,706 --> 00:23:55,936 I think it's probably in the screenshots, but we are always getting screenshots 434 00:23:55,966 --> 00:23:59,936 now, and a lot of them are, "Hey, have you seen what Manychat is doing?" 435 00:24:00,196 --> 00:24:04,186 So companies are using us as a, as an example of corporate Pages that don't 436 00:24:04,186 --> 00:24:08,936 feel like a corporate Page, and then we get tagged into those conversations 437 00:24:08,936 --> 00:24:12,706 that we usually wouldn't have been invited into, and we're getting all 438 00:24:12,706 --> 00:24:16,756 of this amazing content from creators who wanna be interviewed by us for our 439 00:24:16,756 --> 00:24:20,656 magazines and our blogs and whatnot because they think that we will actually 440 00:24:20,656 --> 00:24:24,646 appreciate them because we are actively in the community showing that we do. 441 00:24:25,036 --> 00:24:30,456 And I think that ultimately for me, that was the shift that I was chasing. 442 00:24:30,486 --> 00:24:35,926 I want people to instinctively think, "This conversation would be better if 443 00:24:35,966 --> 00:24:40,726 Manychat showed up," and that is a much more difficult thing to measure, but 444 00:24:40,736 --> 00:24:42,976 you absolutely know when it happens. 445 00:24:43,328 --> 00:24:44,458 Yeah, it is so cool. 446 00:24:44,458 --> 00:24:46,568 Like I said, my DMs were lighting up. 447 00:24:46,618 --> 00:24:49,228 I had to go and look up and see, like, what do they even do? 448 00:24:49,238 --> 00:24:53,308 And so for those of you who are interested after this conversation in learning 449 00:24:53,308 --> 00:24:56,388 more about it, Ashley, I'm gonna get some links from you so that we can send 450 00:24:56,388 --> 00:25:00,488 the listeners to a place that they can go and check out Manychat, especially 451 00:25:00,488 --> 00:25:02,768 if you're active over on Instagram. 452 00:25:02,778 --> 00:25:06,878 Especially I know that it's super popular over there and really 453 00:25:06,878 --> 00:25:08,418 helpful at the end of the day. 454 00:25:08,438 --> 00:25:13,028 Like to do more to grow your business because, I'm all about 455 00:25:13,038 --> 00:25:15,358 we're not just doing social media for social media's sake. 456 00:25:15,358 --> 00:25:18,778 We're doing it so that the activities that we do help grow 457 00:25:18,818 --> 00:25:21,938 businesses and that is definitely a tool that will help you do that. 458 00:25:21,938 --> 00:25:23,708 So I'll make sure that we do that. 459 00:25:23,708 --> 00:25:23,858 Thank you. 460 00:25:23,958 --> 00:25:27,418 Now, unfortunately for me, I have to wrap this conversation 461 00:25:27,418 --> 00:25:30,508 up, but I've got one more bonus question which I'm hoping can help. 462 00:25:30,698 --> 00:25:31,078 Yay. 463 00:25:31,138 --> 00:25:34,538 The purpose of this podcast is to help people that are in roles like 464 00:25:34,538 --> 00:25:37,518 yourself really get more out of their time on LinkedIn to help grow their 465 00:25:37,518 --> 00:25:40,768 business and I know that some of them, there might be some marketers 466 00:25:40,768 --> 00:25:42,598 out there going, "You know what? 467 00:25:42,638 --> 00:25:44,128 I know my Page is boring. 468 00:25:44,158 --> 00:25:45,918 I know that it's putting people to sleep. 469 00:25:45,948 --> 00:25:50,918 I have these great ideas but I'm not sure that I could ever get this 470 00:25:50,918 --> 00:25:55,895 approach approved internally." Where should they start in your experience? 471 00:25:55,915 --> 00:25:59,945 What's one small action that you think they could start taking that 472 00:25:59,985 --> 00:26:03,095 may lead them to get to this place? 473 00:26:03,135 --> 00:26:08,535 Like, so if we can get one safe boring Page a step away from that and a step 474 00:26:08,535 --> 00:26:13,135 closer to actually an effective Page that works, what would you recommend? 475 00:26:13,579 --> 00:26:18,129 I don't think that people are inherently dull but I do think that 476 00:26:18,169 --> 00:26:22,869 a lot of marketers are waiting for permission to become interesting, or 477 00:26:22,899 --> 00:26:26,079 like to become interesting publicly maybe is a better way to put it. 478 00:26:26,449 --> 00:26:30,569 You're probably not gonna get an email from legal that says, "Congratulations, 479 00:26:30,569 --> 00:26:35,709 we've decided you may now develop personality." So I think that maybe don't 480 00:26:35,779 --> 00:26:40,289 think too big from the top, especially if you don't have … The advantage that I 481 00:26:40,299 --> 00:26:46,859 had was that I have a LinkedIn Page of my own that thankfully Manychat is very okay 482 00:26:46,859 --> 00:26:51,039 with me having which a lot of companies might not be, but I think it's totally 483 00:26:51,039 --> 00:26:54,489 okay to experiment on a smaller scale. 484 00:26:54,489 --> 00:26:58,989 So pick an au- topic that your audience maybe they argue about, or maybe you 485 00:26:58,999 --> 00:27:03,809 know for a fact that they have an opinion about, and go leave, I don't know, 20 486 00:27:03,809 --> 00:27:05,609 thoughtful comments on that this week. 487 00:27:05,859 --> 00:27:08,999 And then show that is making a difference that way. 488 00:27:09,219 --> 00:27:13,899 Maybe start out with one post that sounds like it's written by an identifiable 489 00:27:13,899 --> 00:27:16,539 human instead of an HR software update. 490 00:27:16,659 --> 00:27:19,359 That might be a good beginning launch. 491 00:27:19,459 --> 00:27:23,919 My thing is that I know, and you probably know too, that your competitors 492 00:27:23,919 --> 00:27:29,149 are probably obsessing over what to publish next, but meanwhile, there's 493 00:27:29,159 --> 00:27:32,759 an entire internet of conversations already happening without them. 494 00:27:33,229 --> 00:27:37,259 So I'd guess maybe my advice is to stop treating your Company Page like 495 00:27:37,259 --> 00:27:41,839 it's a museum exhibit behind these velvet ropes that we're imagining, and 496 00:27:41,839 --> 00:27:46,339 maybe treat it instead like the most extroverted employee you have ever hired. 497 00:27:46,689 --> 00:27:50,189 I think the goal is to make people feel like there is something missing 498 00:27:50,189 --> 00:27:51,999 when your brand is not there. 499 00:27:52,301 --> 00:27:53,221 I love it. 500 00:27:53,261 --> 00:27:56,581 And of course, as I said, all the details to go and follow the Manychat 501 00:27:56,611 --> 00:27:58,741 Page, check out the product itself. 502 00:27:59,031 --> 00:28:02,201 Go and follow Ashley, connect with her just because it will brighten 503 00:28:02,201 --> 00:28:04,441 your feed, just because it will make you smile, it will make you 504 00:28:04,441 --> 00:28:05,761 laugh, it will make you think. 505 00:28:05,941 --> 00:28:11,081 Ashley, thank you for being that beacon in the feed in amongst some days where 506 00:28:11,081 --> 00:28:17,181 it just feels like it's… we're stepping through the swamplands and it's hard work. 507 00:28:17,361 --> 00:28:21,321 Uh, appreciate you being that beacon of light that we can all gravitate towards. 508 00:28:21,331 --> 00:28:23,521 And, you know, I think that's the upside. 509 00:28:23,521 --> 00:28:25,021 That's what makes you memorable. 510 00:28:25,021 --> 00:28:27,871 So thank you for coming on and sharing all about this. 511 00:28:28,151 --> 00:28:31,601 I wish you and the whole team at Manychat every success. 512 00:28:31,881 --> 00:28:35,121 This is something that people can take away and implement today, and I think 513 00:28:35,131 --> 00:28:36,851 that's the most important lesson of all. 514 00:28:37,061 --> 00:28:40,021 So I appreciate you, and thank you for coming on the show. 515 00:28:40,451 --> 00:28:43,271 Thank you for letting me talk about my favourite topic. 516 00:28:43,608 --> 00:28:44,468 It's mine too. 517 00:28:44,468 --> 00:28:45,678 . So until next week, cheers