Episode 499 Marketing With Bridget Willard Shoud You Be On X (Twitter)?

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Show Summary

This podcast features a conversation between Rob Cairns and Marketing Expert Bridget Willard about the value of using X (formerly Twitter) for marketing. Willard and Cairns discuss the platform’s SEO benefits, emphasizing the importance of consistent posting and engagement. They also highlight X’s role in networking and building professional relationships, contrasting it with other social media platforms. The conversation underscores the significance of understanding where target customers are most active and aligning marketing strategies accordingly. Finally, practical tips are offered for effective X usage, including strategies for content creation and engagement.

Show Transcript

Hey everybody, Rob Cairns here and today I’m here with my dear good friend, Miss Bridget Willard. Hey Bridget, how are you today?

Great Rob, it’s great to be back on the podcast talking about my favorite thing X which marks the spot for your best marketing. Oops, there’s an X.

Yeah, there of course. But but but you know it’s f it’s funny and for those who don’t know this is going to be a new regular segment where you and I are going to talk all about marketing. Yay.

Yay.

So couple things you can do is you can subscribe to the podcast and save us all the sending it to you. Subscribe to the Substack which will tell you weekly what I put out. And then you can also um uh follow Bridget and I on uh X if you or Twitter formerly known as Twitter, right?

Or any any other platform that’s all there and uh and enjoy. But we’re going to we’re going to talk about all things marketing. So, uh today we thought we’d talk about X. But before we do that, and just because some people probably haven’t heard you or don’t know you, did you get into marketing? What’s your marketing background to put you on the spot? Because I can’t.

Oh, holy Toledo. Uh I I’ve been in marketing for since I don’t know 2015 officially when I started working for a marketing agency. I stumbled upon it in 2008 when I was at a construction company just like going we’re still in business setting up the websites and everything. I’ve always built websites

like in HTML.

Oh yeah.

Just because it was a fun project, right? Um you know getting on Twitter back in 067 seven um learning WordPress.com in 2007, building a WordPress website, you know, all of that. And I’ve kind of specialized in writing content that that’s focused on the website, focused on driving traffic to the website and leaning on the website as the source of truth for your content. So, I’m kind of a Twitter uh packages plus blogging is the sweet spot for Bridget Willard LLC. Yeah.

And what I would say is to add to that is your website should be set for convergence. I mean, you know, a lot of people build websites and then they I’ve got a former client who used to complain. And he’d say, “Oh, I built this great website, but it’s not converting.” And I said to him one day, “So, what’s the traffic?” So, websites are only part of the marketing package or bucket, if you want.

Yeah. But it’s so huge. I mean, I mean, I can’t it’s a totally different topic which I would love to talk about, but the vague wording on a website where you’re look you’re looking at a website going, “What do you do?”

Yeah.

What does this mean?

Yep.

You know, like, could I take all of these words and rebrand it to an automotive repair shop and it still works? You got a problem.

True.

Now, Now, now kind of let’s talk about it, formerly known as Twitter. Um,

Twitter, I’m just going to call it Twitter. Elon Musk t made two mistakes in my opinion, Rob.

Not putting an internal combustion engine in that beautifully designed vehicle.

Yep.

And rebranding Twitter as X.

I I think

just doesn’t roll off the tongue. Even on uh a Google alert, it says TW X, formerly Twitter. in parenthesis.

And I I think um I think X is more relevant today than ever before. And I’m on Blue Sky. I’m on Master Dawn. I’m on LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn’s really relevant to be honest with you.

Yep. I would love to talk about that next time.

Yeah, I’m on Facebook. I don’t even want to go there because I think Facebook is getting worse and worse by the day. Um personally, uh Instagram, I have a bit of a easy too. But I use Instagram more for personal use. Uh probably I I probably follow every self-help guru on Instagram forever. So that’s the way it is. And then there’s things like Tik Tok and Pinterest, which I really can’t get into. So

I’m I’m for B2B, I’m into the big four, but like definitely Twitter and LinkedIn 100%. Um I feel like people are making emotional decisions. on where they put their marketing time, budget, resources, right?

Based upon who owns the company, who gives a f*** who owns Twitter,

what

it doesn’t matter.

What I would tell you, and by the way, you can use that language because that’s my podcast, so that’s not a problem. Um,

sorry.

Yeah, I don’t care.

This is not a family or don’t be no. Um, what I what I will say and don’t be sorry and what I would say is thank It’s more important where your customers are and where your potential clients are. So if they’re on Twitter or on LinkedIn, I think that’s where you need to be. And one reason I don’t place a lot of emphasis on Facebook is my clients are not Facebook. So and I don’t think networking with a bunch of other marketers, sorry guys and girls, but that’s my philosophy good for business. Great to catch up with colleagues. It’s great to catch up with friends, but in the long run, it doesn’t get you anywhere.

I’m going to disagree with you on that one, but I want I want to divorce I want to divorce our conversation for one second and take this layer by layer. I want to talk about the SEO value of being on X or Twitter.

Okay. And the first tool I want everybody who is like, I don’t know if it’s still relevant, is Google Alerts. I’m doing this old school. If you set up a Google alert for your name and as it happens, you will see that that Google is indexing posts on X. Google is indexing tweets. They have off and on for a long time.

And you know it there’s you you forget that there’s a brand search value. Um, Spark Toro just did this whole research dump on this where Uh people will type in like for example like you said blue sky. Maybe it’s not blue sky.com but they’ll type in blue sky in the search bar. That’s a brand search.

Yep.

So it might not have a click or it might or it might have a click but you’re looking for somebody because you’re doing the discovery process but you’re also using search for validation. So maybe somebody has recommended you as a service and you’re like well who is this bridge? Willard person, you know, I brought this I’ve been a lot the one good thing about all of the issues, the legal issues that WordPress is legal and ethical issues. I don’t like the word drama because I think it’s really um uh misogynist term, but the legal and ethical issues that WordPresses press is having right now has brought back a lot of WordPress developers to Twitter having regular conversations about just different things. And so I’ve been like, “No, you guys, you got to be on here. You got to be on here. You got to be on here.”

No question. And and I want to stop here for just a pro tip out there. You mentioned uh Google Alerts. So I know we’re about Twitter, but I’m going to mention a pro tip. If you’re in business and you have a board of directors, you should have your name, your company name, and all your board of directors in a Google because if they see anything and it gets indexed by Google, you want to know if you’re in PR. So that’s That’s where I want to stop.

You should know. You should definitely know that. I’ve I’ve had a client who had PR issues because of a employee who said some stuff in a Facebook group that was borderline illegal.

Yes.

It was a whole thing. Okay. Which then people brought to Twitter. But like, so here’s another one of my screenshots I’m doing for the podcast. Andrew Hoyer was like, “Yes,

I know. These are friends.”

Yes.

This is from today. This is from today. He said, “A lot of people don’t realiz this. He’s replying to my tweet about Google alerts. I just did a Google search for my name. Searching your name on Google. And you you forget how much content shows up on page one because there’ll be that carousel.

Yep.

So,

we always say, “Oh, are your customers there?” But we forget. You can be a lurker or you don’t like especially if your if your um public profiles are literally public, then when you’re are people are are validating you and your expertise, they’re going to look that up, you know, and so that’s that’s a big deal as far as an SEO branding highlevel move is you you have to be on this and you should be posting at least once a day. That’s life support. That’s just life support levels

and all you’re in a in a space of a disaster or a news crisis or anything else. I’ll give you An example one if you have at time of this record um Canada’s prime minister announced his resignation pending today where did

where did yeah it had been coming and uh so we’re now into what we call a prologue of parliament which means parliament won’t sit until March instead of this month and the liberals are into leadership review but where did all the news hit first

beyond the news Twitter on social media it was Twitter the news uh outlets are still on Twitter. Not Blue Sky, some of them are there, too. But they’re not Masteron, but they’re on Twitter. And that’s what people need to understand in a disaster where is all the disaster reporting going on? Twitter, not Facebook, Twitter. So,

yeah. And one of the main reasons for that, Rob, is the fact that it remember it started as an SMS platform. It was texting.

Um when Texas froze in 2021, um that some people were only able to get service, sell service because the power was out.

Yeah.

So, their Wi-Fi was down.

So, their news was only coming from Twitter. They couldn’t get on Facebook or Instagram. It’s too heavy.

Yeah.

It was too heavy. So, you couldn’t even get that. You couldn’t like I was live streaming. I I did have internet in my part of the city uh Wi-Fi and I was watching the city council and I was tweeting out the boil notice because the water pumps had been it was a whole thing, right?

Yeah, I remember.

But that’s, you know, that’s it’s just I to me you can be upset with stuff and I I just feel like emotional decisions are never good for business.

No, I agree.

They’re just not. And that’s why you have to have a marketing consultant because you are a business owner. You’re a business owner who does something. Whatever you do is what you sell. That doesn’t mean you’re good at marketing. In fact, it means you’re probably not.

You know, you know my philosophy with business. If you’re not good at doing something, hire something somebody. And if you want to if you don’t like doing something, hire somebody and concentrate on what you’re good at, right?

Or or not just that, like my um old boss of the construction company was doing his dad’s bookkeeping because his dad had gotten older. I said, “Why are you you cost you cost cost this company job costing. You cost this company $110 an hour. Why are you doing $15 an hour of work?

I agree. I agree. That’s how

that’s a waste of time.

That’s how I look at bookkeeping is a good example where people don’t outsource. Another place I don’t think people outsource well is legal. They go cheap.

Oh gosh. Yes.

And I I know what I pay my attorney. So I won’t even go there because between business and personal last year, I spent over 100 grand on legal fees. sometimes.

Holy Toledo.

I’ll tell that story, but that that’s a a s*** show in itself. So,

so another like just like changing back to Twitter for a second like and the search of it like so I this is what got me all on a fire about this subject because I saw this tweet about from a developer who didn’t realize that people could find his services from Twitter. And I say kind of like tongue and cheek, but if There’s a search bar, then there’s SEO. It’s Dustin Hyle. And he was like, “Apparently, I’m feeding X properly. I got a new client over the weekend. Couldn’t figure out where he came from.” So, I asked him. And also, so I asked him. A lot of people will say, “Well, I don’t know. I don’t get any business from there.” How do you know?

Yes.

Are you lead tracking? Are you asking clients where they came from? And And do they even know? Like, did they see you before on Twitter? and then forgot about you and then put in the search bar WordPress and then remembered you. You don’t know. You don’t even know. Even if you’re asking, you still don’t know. That’s why we use these social networks because we’re broadcasting. That’s okay. So that remember when I said let’s just stop talking about networking. That’s just the broadcasting aspects.

Yeah. Of course. Of course.

That’s that’s gold. That’s money. Now for me, back to the networking. I work with I’m the kind of person that works with a marketing manager. I’m a marketing manager’s best friend. They have all these deadlines. They have all these unrealistic things. Like a lot of my clients are marketing managers. They have deadlines. They have aggressive publishing schedules. They need content. They need somebody else on social because they don’t have time to do all the replies. So that’s me. So when when um and I’ve gotten work from WordPress developers who are my other best friend. So, it’s either you’re a marketing manager or you build websites and you need somebody who who needs help. A lot of my clients have come from the people I’ve met on Twitter. Like Butch Ewing is like gold for me is he sends me work, you know, and I’ve worked with him on a client and I’ve worked with his clients. Um, like this happens to me all the time. Tammy Grant, I mean, I’ve I I can just keep naming them, naming them, naming them, but like one uh client I had for years and years and years until I did some internal changes I got from responding to one tweet. I’ll never forget I have a whole case study on my website about it. They’re worth they were worth like $46,000 to me which is a lot for what I was what I do. Like I’m not building $46,000 websites but even if I were right it’s that she posted a picture of a generic conference It’s like, you know, you know when you’re a social media manager and you’re asking the people boots on the ground to take a damn picture so that you have something to put on the internet and they send you some generic picture. It’s just so annoying. And I go, “Yeah, right. Every social media’s nightmare.” She started DMing me that that became a core client for years.

That’s awesome. And and I’ve

tweet

and one of my good friends who I’ll give a shout out to Mr. Jeff Brown out in Turo, Nova Scotia. We originally met on Twitter. Um we uh have conversations on the phone pretty well every day like give or take business whatever. Uh family depends on what’s on the table and um and we some work back and forth all the time. So I mean it happens and it really

the key though

to take that relationship on Twitter and get it off Twitter eventually.

Correct.

And then build it out.

Correct. So like in 2019 Uh we were doing all this uh maybe it was 2018, no 2019. We’re doing all this like Word Camp Europe tweeting and stuff and I was you know going from one conference to another uh from Word Camp Las Vegas to Press um what is it called?

Press Con?

Well, not not Press Con because I forgot what it was called before they sold. Uh oh, holy Toledo. Anyway, whatever. I’ll remember at 2 o’clock in the morning. Anyway, so I was driving from from Las Vegas to Tucson, Arizona, where Josh Strbel’s company had this conference that his wife put on. Anyway, um and Warren Lane Naida reached out to me through my contact form and he was like, “Hey, I saw your Twitter, you tweeting about Word Camp Europe and all this other stuff and um you know, I really I could use some help.” And so he became a client and from that we’ve written three books. We’re working on a fourth book. He’s my main writer for my business. Uh we talk on WhatsApp. We brainstorm. We help each other get more work. Like the Twitter is also good for keeping relationships alive because it’s so hard to remember who is that one person that really specializes in Pinterest. My client wants but I want to do it. Dang, I can’t remember. And you can’t remember because you’re not inter acting with them. So, if you’re not like going to the Chamber of Commerce, BNI, local meetings where you’re constantly being reminded of potential um people that you could work with to make your agency bigger, then you need to be on Twitter.

Yeah, I would agree. I mean, I I have a Warren story, too, and that was one year he was giving away a couple of his books, and I said, “Oh, I’ll take a read.” And I said to him, “But under one condition and my, you know, my condition is if you give me a book, you get to come on the show and talk about it. Then Warren’s like, I could do that. So Warren and I got on the show. Warren and I have developed, as you know, an amazing friendship and he does a monthly me on SEO and

you know, it’s the same thing, right? And those are real relationships and that people don’t get that stuff and that’s the important thing. And

you know, I have different people. The the key with Twitter is to filter out all the noise and stay out of the noise and stay out of the fights and stay out of this thing.

Oh yeah, you don’t have time for that. You’re a business. You’re you have to remember why you’re there.

Yep.

You’re there to be a business. And but so another thing besides SEO, besides, you know, being uh reminding people that you’re available to work with them on client work or to be a white label vendor or vice versa is also the idea of being inspired. That was my original thing that I loved about Twitter is like I felt like I could get around like-minded people in the same industry, not necessarily the same thought process. I’m going to I’m going to clarify that here. People that will inspire you, you know, like I’m stuck in this town. There’s no meetups in Corpus Christi, Texas for marketers. Zero. Zero meetups for Corpus Christi for marketing people. There are no social media. There’s a real estate investing the like where am I going to go to talk to people who are like me that will inspire me? The idea upon idea upon an idea is like, “Oh yeah, I could totally do that or that makes total sense. I need to hire a bookkeeper or whatever.” Like where is that happening where you’re having those spontaneous moments of ingenuity? You’re not

like if you live if you’re isolated, you live in a different country, you have a different kind of a job, you you need to be where the people like you are expressing creativity and and are talking about real industry topics that that are important to you. You have to be there.

Yeah, I I agree. I mean, I know when I’m out socially, especially with my other half tears, I lately, one of the things I’ll do is I’ll take my phone. I won’t I used to turn it upside down on the table because I just felt if I’m out with somebody frankly or out with people, I want them to be my attention, especially her. And lately, I end up handing her my phone and just say, “Put it in your pocket because I don’t want to get caught in this endless scroll.” And frankly, I don’t even care. I mean, I

I’m off the clock. I don’t need it. I’ll throw my phone on do not disturb mode number two and I’ll have it. And and we were out Saturday night, and I was actually charging my phone on a portable battery at At the time I hand her the battery and phone and said just put on the bench beside you and she looked at me and said you don’t want it do you? I said no. I said if I need it to show you something you can hand it or take picture you hand it back to me but other than that I don’t want it. I just

Yeah.

And then

and that’s that’s a good point Rob is like compartmentalizing this as part of your as part of your bisdev time.

Yep.

You know and that’s what I like about Twitter the most. It’s like it’s it’s very easy to get on and very easy to get off. Yep.

You know, you don’t have to be u there’s another thing I like to tell people and I I got in this really long conversation with somebody about it who just didn’t get it, which is a gift I have sometimes. I’m either so explaining it and you’re like, I never thought of it that way or like what? You got to train the algorithm like you train a dog. And this means you’re not just pressing a button. Don’t just press a button think you trained it. You need to reply. And and I’ve believe with all my heart the reply is the power move. It’s always been the power move. Replying on somebody else’s post, not replying to other people’s comments. That’s just normal hospitality and polite behavior. I mean going on a post that somebody else wrote on Twitter, on X, on LinkedIn, on Blue Sky, on Reddit, on Masson, wherever it is, and replying to them, not just being a total like jerk, We’re not trolling, just saying, “Wow, I never thought of it like that.” Or if they’re asking a question, being the person that answers it.

I mean,

back in the day, Gary Veaynerchuk helped his dad build his wine business, the wine library, right? But he just sat on Twitter and answered questions about wine pairings.

You were just there. You were just there. Now he has a media company and they do sports things and I don’t even pay attention to him anymore. He’s like so out of my headsp space I’m I’m like I’m not even listening. Right. But because he’s in another world but like being there and being a helpful person who answers questions is gold every single time.

I agree.

So easy to do on Twitter. So easy to do.

I have to ask a question. Video audio pictures or all three.

Twitter is text. I mean that Yeah, sometimes I’ll put pictures. I put a bunch of pictures on there today cuz I bothered to put my face on and you know, I’ve got a bra on. You know, I’m on medical leave cuz nobody seems to know what happened to me after I had gallbladder surgery. My body just started freaking out and like mostly I’m just not I’m in pajamas all day, you know?

Yes.

And uh like You know, so like proof of life, right? Or rate my setup is just ridiculous because it’s not I don’t have an IDE. I don’t have 1000 screens. I’ve got every light in this apartment on facing me. It’s hilarious, right? So I’ll do it for comedy, but um I know that there are people who do the spaces or whatever it’s called. I dipped my toe in that for a hot second, but honestly I I’m not um I’m very like I’m I’m just weird. I know it’s called autism now, but I’m I’m not into podcasts. I don’t listen to podcasts. I I’ll watch a video podcast. Like I’ll go hang out in my living room, uh type in studying digital marketing on YouTube and then I’ll watch it because then I’m like I want to see your face, you know? I’ll listen to something in the car while I’m driving, but I’m not just like listening to space. So that’s just not my vibe.

Not your vibe.

And it’s not if Yeah. And it’s I don’t find it I don’t find it to be an efficient way to communicate, which is what I like about Twitter.

Yes, I agree.

It’s a textbased platform.

Yeah.

It’s one of the best ones to share links on to go back to your website, which goes to the beginning of what I’m saying. You the source of truth. of your marketing material should be from your website. When people ask me, well, what do I post? If I should post one original tweet every day, I have a 321 method. Um, but if I if I should post original thing, what do I post? Uh, you have a website, right, with like a ton of words on it. Copy paste link hashtag. Really not that hard. Unless you hate the copy on your website

because it doesn’t represent you anymore. which case you’re going to go find your friend Bridget Willard. Bridgetwillard.com. But you know, but but so but in the process of doing that, you’re like, “Oh yeah, I really don’t want to promote that anymore.” Oh, and then and then it leads you to, “Oh, I really should change this article.” Like, you don’t have to do a giant content audit, an official content audit, just as just if you happen upon one of your blog posts and you’re like, “Yeah, that’s a little outdated.” Just go into WordPress and fix it and then press publish. It’s not that hard. That’s why we love WordPress.

Yep. So true. Um just to kind of wrap it up a little bit, uh if you got three quick tips for Twitter X, what are they?

Go on every day. I’ll do my I’ll tell you my 321 because that’s three things and it’s 321. Um follow follow three people every day.

Um find two posts to reply to and post one original tweet ideally that links to your website.

And where can people find out more about you?

Bridgetwillard.com

or of course on X.

Bridget M. Willard on X. Bridget M. Willard on Twitter. I’m Bridget Willard on LinkedIn. I’m Bridget Willard. I haven’t changed my name. Just type in Bridget Willard in search bar. You’ll find me.

Don’t find my address. That’s creepy.

Yeah. Hey Bridget, thanks. Thanks for uh joining me as always. Appreci Thank you so much and uh we’ll talk to you soon. Okay.