The Social Media Basics Most Brands Skip (But Shouldn't)

It’s time for a social media reality check. 

In this episode, Laney and Anna dive into the unskippable basics that way too many brands ignore—either out of laziness, confusion, or pure chaos. We’re calling it like it is and sharing the four foundational pillars every brand needs to master in 2025 to stand out, show up, and stop spinning their wheels.

Whether you’re DIY-ing your content or working with a team, you’ll walk away with clear steps to stop blending in and start owning your online presence.

Hit play and let’s get into it.

Transcript

Laney Goff: Welcome back to the Untamed Social Podcast. My name is Laney and I'm here with my bestie girl, Anna.

Anna Dobbert: Hey.

Laney Goff: Don't tell anybody else on the team I said that.

Anna Dobbert: They're all gonna see this, so.

Laney Goff: You're right. You're right. No, really though. You and I just have a great time together. Okay.

Anna Dobbert: We understand each other.

Laney Goff: And I feel like people are in for a treat today because I think we're coming in kind of hardcore, with our topic because really it's for all of the brands who are doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

Because they don't pay attention or they're lazy. Um, we're gonna talk about the social media basics that most brands skip, but you shouldn't. And there's actually a lot of them. So hopefully we can get to like the core, main ones, but I don't know. I just feel like we get clients all the time who come in and they're like, we need help.

And then we look at like their foundation of what they've got going on and it's like, what are you doing?

Anna Dobbert: Well, because social media is so accessible, like there's also a lot of bad, unprofessional, like not well done content out there. And so other people see it and they're like, oh, I could do something like that. And it's like, no, please don't.

Laney Goff: Please do not. Please do not. So. We'll start off, we'll tell, hopefully we're gonna have like kind of four main areas for you to focus on, keep it structured. Number one. Okay. Like, let's just keep it structured here. Go in this order. Sometimes you may need somebody to tell you the hard truth of just do this, don't ask questions.

Number one, strategy. So many companies. Just fall into this idea of, okay, like we're not being present. Let's just post to post. And there's zero thought that goes into it, and that frustrates me beyond belief.

Anna Dobbert: It's like buying a billboard and being like, oh, we could just put anything up there. Like people are gonna see this with their real life eyes. And so you have to look at it like any other part of marketing. If you're gonna print an ad in a newspaper, you're gonna have so many different eyeballs on it and put so much effort into it.

So like you should be doing that with social media too.

Laney Goff: Yes. Like and, and like there are obviously different parts to creating a social media strategy, which we'll get to, but like the idea that you don't need this as your foundation is wild. I mean, obviously, social media can give you results. We've seen it, we know firsthand. But in order to get those results, you need to figure out what kind of results are you looking for.

Anna Dobbert: Mm-hmm.

Laney Goff: Like basic.

Anna Dobbert: Definitely.

Laney Goff: So knowing that the, okay, so what would you say is like the first step in, if you're gonna start with a strategy, what's the first thing that you're gonna wanna figure out?

Anna Dobbert: I feel like. Probably looking at what you're actually wanting out of social media, so determining your goals, be it you want people to start buying your product or your service, you just wanna bring brand awareness. You want to bring awareness to a certain topic or anything like that. Like whatever you are wanting from it, you need to be able to establish that goal or else you're not gonna be able to root any of your content in anything.

Laney Goff: Yes. Or measure anything. like, I mean, that's a whole other situation that we probably won't even touch on today, but like your analytics, like you, you gotta be tracking 'em. And if you have nothing to, to like decide what are we even tracking, why are we tracking these numbers, then there's no purpose behind it.

But I did wanna say, I'm glad that you said brand awareness because this is something that. Anytime that I have a consulting client, or maybe it's kind of like a discovery call of a prospect who's thinking about hiring us for social media management services, we always tell them, especially because we focus mainly on organic social, like if you're not putting paid into it or you're at least not, not putting a lot of money into that bucket, brand awareness is your number one ROI.

Every single time, like if you're thinking otherwise, you're wrong. Brand awareness needs to be top of mind. You're wrong.

Anna Dobbert: Well, I love my, my favorite question that we like ask clients when we first start working with them is like, how can we know we've succeeded? Like, how, what does it mean to you guys to have success? Is it a certain amount of followers? Is it a certain amount of conversions? And I think that that's really important to put in people's minds 'cause, no one ever comes into those client meetings asking that question. It's usually something we always have to bring forward, and it's my absolute favorite sort of intake question that we do is like, how do we know we've done a good job?

Laney Goff: Yeah, definitely. Because most of the time they don't know and they actually come to us and they're like, how should, how should we do know?

Anna Dobbert: Yeah.

Laney Goff: And I love that. Um. But in addition to that, I feel like, so that being your favorite question of like our intake call with them, mine is whenever we get to the point where we ask them about their audience, because this is my biggest pet peeve of all time, is when you're a brand and you have no idea who your target audience is, how they want to be spoken to, what's actually their desires, their struggles. That is definitely like under my skin and I might not wanna work with you if you don't know that because it's necessary. Like if you are doing the market research to understand who your client or your customer is, why on God's green Earth are they gonna buy from you?

Anna Dobbert: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Laney Goff: Yeah.

Anna Dobbert: Well, and also con-- like social media content is this monolith, like it's so, there's so much stuff out there. And to be able to know what other people are doing in your same field, your competitors, your friends, even like to know what everyone's doing is so key to be able to keep the wheels turning.

Like it. We, for some clients, we put out content literally every single day. There's only so many ideas in the world. You need to be able to make sure either you're not doing a carbon copy of someone else's, or if there's a different angle you could be taking that someone else is doing.

Laney Goff: Yeah, that's a really good point because. If you really think about it, like you're, there's kind of two things to that and this leads into like our second point. So like the first thing being, start with a strategy.

Who, who are you talking to, do you even know anything about your audience? And also what are your goals? Do you know what those are? And along with that, like knowing your competitors is I think something that most brands miss out on. And I can't fault people for this because I think it's really easy to get trapped into like looking at what your competitors are doing or what other brands who maybe aren't competitors but are, you know, like a big brand that you see them having success and you want a taste of that, so you start to do trends and things that they're doing. The second part of like really the social media basics is figuring out how you as a brand stand out. And I don't even think that means necessarily only against your competitors.

Because there's so many brands out there who are standing out and they're not even thinking about their competitors like Nutter Butter. They're, I don't know who they were thinking about, they were thinking about extraterrestrials or something, but they, they were not thinking about their competition, anybody else's competition.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah.

Laney Goff: They were just saying, how can we be unique?

Anna Dobbert: Well, and something that's interesting about that is I feel like sometimes the need to stand out or the need to have the super unique content can sometimes be really daunting for people and it can hold them back and be like, oh, I'm just gonna do this formula I've seen somewhere else 'cause it worked for them.

And it almost seems like, um, too big of a task to try to figure out how you or your brand could stand out. But it really is quite foundational into, I don't know if you just wanna have any kind of success that isn't cookie cutter.

Laney Goff: Yeah, definitely. And another point to that, I'm gonna go ahead and this is a freebie, I'm not gonna charge anybody for this advice. Um, 'cause I actually just read it in a book by Mark Schafer called Audacious. And what he talks about in the book is that the, the key to standing out, with any type of marketing is to create a feeling of awe.

And so that could look like a lot of different things, right? Like if you surprise somebody, that's an awe inspiring feeling. Um, if there's pain there, like emotional pain, if there's, you know, joy and happiness, that's awe. If you, I mean, there's so many ways that you can create awe and it's just about finding.

How are you going to create that awe with the content that you're creating so that you really hit those like emotional points with your audience to hook them in. Not only that, but then keep them there. And I think people miss that a lot.

Anna Dobbert: Well, 'cause even like we could categorize intrigue as a feeling of awe because like, have you ever seen someone make a TikTok that's about something that'll like never apply to your life? And the top comment is like. I don't have kids, but I watch this entire thing or something like that. And it's that kind of thing of being like, people consume so much content every single day.

They low key will watch anything. So even if you think your thing is really niche, really confusing, really boring, if you present it well enough, people will watch it. Even if it has nothing to do with them. Like you can sit there and be, my audience is moms from 30 to 50 who are like doing X, Y, Z. And you're still probably gonna get eyes on it that aren't that.

And if you make it interesting enough, people will keep watching. People will feed that right back to the algorithm.

Laney Goff: And you're so right. Like, I can't even tell you my FYP is so wild and I'm involved in so many things that I actually am not involved in that it, I mean, it's so easy when somebody presents that to you in a way that gives you those feelings, like you're all the way in. So I think that, um, outside, for me, outside of like determining your goals and, and making sure you really, truly understand your audience. Top of the line has gotta be like, how are you gonna stand out? How are you gonna create those feelings of awe so that you're not duplicating what other creators are doing or other brands are doing, and you're allowing yourself to be unique, have your own voice, and to really stand out in the market.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah. One person on TikTok who really, really stands out to me, which is funny because he does cooking content and there's so much cooking content. Um, but he's the, his name is Kevin and he does the cooking at the sorority house.

Have you ever seen his videos?

Laney Goff: No but I need to be on it.

Anna Dobbert: Okay. He is like, he's got like, I wanna say probably close to millions of followers at this point, but maybe not. And he literally just does voiceovers while he cooks these meals. But he's coming up with each of these recipes. They're all like a little unique and interesting.

Like one time he made a salad with a grilled cheese crouton. Um, and he just takes, he has just his spin on it and it's so clearly like reflective of him and his personality and therefore it totally stands out in the terms of like the, the cooking, the like beast that is the cooking community on TikTok.

Same with the singing chef. He writes a little song for each of his recipes and he just sings the entire recipe, like while he cooks it. And so--

Laney Goff: You're on a lot of cooking TikToks.

Anna Dobbert: My boyfriend likes to cook, so we like, we send each other. Yeah.

Laney Goff: I don't cook. I don't cook.

Anna Dobbert: No. Well, I-- I cook for myself. I never cook for two. Usually he does all the for two.

Like I can feed myself, but.

Laney Goff: Yours is cheese toast in the toaster, because that's every time.

Anna Dobbert: I make a really mean butter noodle. So.

Laney Goff: That takes a lot of skill. Okay?

Anna Dobbert: It does, it's sacred.

Laney Goff: Oh my goodness.

Anna Dobbert: Back to standing out, back to content.

Laney Goff: You could see we, it takes nothing to get us intrigued. Nothing.

Anna Dobbert: Are, are you having feeling of awe right now?

Laney Goff: You should be if you're not. Um, so anyways, so yeah, so we start off with strategy, then we go into how do we stand out, how do we make ourselves unique and give our own point of view with our own voice. And then I think there's like.

This is the boring part, in my opinion, but also like it's necessary because, you know, algorithms, um, they kind of require it. Um, but also like there's, there's foundational things that need to happen behind the scenes too that is kind of like the algorithm of your life, like how to actually make things work.

So there's a foundational piece there of like, once you have figured out, you know. What your strategy is and how you're gonna be unique then you like have to actually get into doing the work. And that starts with a couple of things in my opinion. Number one is setting up your profiles on whatever accounts you're going to or whatever social platforms you're gonna be utilizing.

And then also setting up an actual content calendar. If I find one more company that doesn't have a content calendar, woo.

Anna Dobbert: I know this is like the phase that my mom is in with her social media. 'Cause she's an artist and I'm, so, I'm right there at that basics part with her where it's like your Instagram bio needs to have these specific features. You need to have your link to your website. If you're gonna have highlights they need to look like this or like you need to pick a day to post.

Like I remember I was like driving in the car with her and we were talking about social media strategy and I was like, the biggest piece of advice I could give you is like, you're gonna pick two days, that you're gonna post on and that's the only days you can, you're gonna have to think about this.

'Cause it's, it's stressful for her, obviously. It's like not her domain. And so Tuesdays and Thursdays, she shoots a TikTok and or she shoots like an Instagram Reel and she sends it to me and I help her with it, and then she posts it. And those are the only days she has to worry about it and figure it out.

But now she's got this consistent flow going with it. She's got a bank of ideas and she's able to be like, okay, it's Tuesday or Thursday, I'm putting something out today. People know what to expect with it. And like her numbers went, got so much better the second she started being consistent with it.

Laney Goff: Oh my gosh. Don't, I mean you don't have to expose her now, but later. Give me her handle so I can follow her, 'cause your mom is super supportive for us on social media.

Anna Dobbert: Oh my gosh. I know. Every time I see, like who's watched the Instagram stories, it's like my sister's boyfriend and my mom, and I'm like, oh hey, okay, y'all.

Laney Goff: That's so good. I love that. But yeah, I mean, and it's so true and I think that. You-- well, I can't really judge. I'm, I'm over here just like throwing out judgment. But I, I remember where I was before I started working with Strella and I, I, I get sat down a little because I actually did used to be that person who would be like, you don't have to, you know, plan in advance.

Like, I'm, I'm just a procrastinator. It's just who I am. And so I get the feeling of like, this goes against the grain for me, but because I've been so immersed in it for the past three years, like now I know no different. And it truly makes a difference. Not only do you need a content calendar, but you also need like task management system to keep you accountable. And I think that people miss that a lot too. Like we, at Strella, we use Trello. So we have a task management board, each of us that every day we have tasks on it that we know that we need to complete. It helps to keep us organized and structured and to make sure that we are accountable and so.

You know, anytime I come to a consulting client, they don't have a content calendar. You know, they think, okay, well let's create the content calendar. No, let's stop, pause. We're creating a task management system first, okay? Because you can't do anything unless you're like actively creating lists of things that you need to do each week.

Anna Dobbert: And a place to house all the different stuff. Like you can't just have. Like if you're the one social media person on a team, you can't just have all of this like existing in your phone. It needs to be saved elsewhere so other people can see it. You can share it easily and like if something happens, there's another place you can go to that.

And maybe that's why I'm traumatized. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm traumatized by my computer hitting the fan, um, last week. But the. The benefit of having all of your stuff organized in the cloud somewhere. I don't care which cloud it is.

Laney Goff: Where the cloud is.

Anna Dobbert: Google Drive, wherever the cloud, whatever cloud works for you, house things in it.

Be able to access all of your files and like your content calendar from a different place. Don't just have it all sort of unorganized on your phone. 'Cause then like one hiccup, one thing needs to be changed and it can get messy really, really quickly.

Laney Goff: Really fast. Is it weird that, as you were saying that I was thinking it could be a Stratus cloud or a Cumulus cloud? Something's wrong. Okay.

Anna Dobbert: Your kids learn about clouds right now, how do you remember those?

Laney Goff: Oh man. So yes, so that's the foundation of that. But then going back to like the platforms. You know, a lot of people skip that. They don't, they don't optimize at all, and it's like the algorithm, this is part of the algorithm. I think people forget that.

Anna Dobbert: Mm-hmm.

Laney Goff: TikTok maybe not so much. Okay. I could see where TikTok, it's kind up in the air as you know, whether that matters or not.

Instagram for sure, like all day long. If you're not optimizing your bio and putting in there, you know, things like who you are, what you do, who you serve. Then it's gonna be really difficult to find you or for your information to pop up on somebody's feed. Um, and also just making sure that like you're giving access to people, like you mentioned links for your mom. Um, my lord, the amount of brands that like don't put their links in their bios.

Anna Dobbert: Or it will link to something random, like they do have a link, but it's like outdated or it's to something, I don't know, something completely irrelevant. It's like, no, no, no, no. This needs to be so much more centralized.

Laney Goff: That, or they have 45 links, like if they have a link tree and you have to scroll down. I'm done. We're done.

Anna Dobbert: And and some of them are, and some of them are named something like, Spring 2020 Bash and it's like, okay, that was five years ago. Why am I looking at this link right now? Why is it in front of my face?

Laney Goff: Yes. This does require you to like continuously keep up to date.

Anna Dobbert: Update things. Yeah.

Laney Goff: It's not a one, one stop shop. You're done. Okay. Um, so yeah, that, that's gonna be number three. So building that foundation. And then I feel like once you kind of have those three down. And it like truly mastered them. Okay.

Like, let's not, let's not just like willy-nilly do these things. When you have mastered these things, then I feel like the, the big thing that you should focus on is building your community.

Anna Dobbert: I definitely agree. I feel like also sometimes people get like shy about doing that. Like even posting content is sometimes really scary for people. And so once it's there they're like, I can't look at it. You know? It's like how Adam Driver wouldn't watch his own movies. Like, no, you still have to go on the press tour.

Like you have to go in and you like all those comments. You have to go respond to people and maybe start following people back. If you're really small, like you've gotta, if you're gonna put yourself out there, you have to put yourself out there all the way.

Laney Goff: Yes. I'm so glad that you said that because that was definitely something I was thinking like, it's very easy to think build community means like you're just responding. But the truth of the matter is, is that you have to be proactive. If you're, if you move into a new neighborhood and they're having a block party and you don't get invited.

You can't sit back and just say like, oh, you know, woe is me. They should have come to me. Like, no, it's also your responsibility to, to be a part of that. Why did I use that metaphor? I don't know, but I did. Um, so.

Anna Dobbert: You were uninvited to the block party, one too many times.

Laney Goff: I was for good reason. But, um, if you wanna be part of that block party, you have to be proactive.

You have to get out there, find other people in your space that are within your niche, and just start connecting. And that's the, when people ask me, how did you know back in the day, 20 years ago, I'm just kidding, it wasn't that long ago. But you know, when I was seeing success on Instagram, they would always say to me like, how did you do this?

And the truth of the matter is, is that it was all because I made connections, on my own. Like I went out of my way to get to know the other people within the space that I was in, and I created relationships there. So then they started to share me on their stories and in their feed. And when that happens, then you start to tap into their audience.

You can't just tap into their audience if you're not willing to like go out of your way to get to know them.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah, and I think that's honestly probably one of the biggest selling points for like what we do here at Strella to Clients is like they do not want to respond to people's comments. They just simply do not want to be doing that on their own. And like to be able to give that task to someone else is like very, very appealing.

'Cause people just don't seem to like this step of it. It's all fun and games like shooting videos and making pretty calendars and ideas. But the second you have to be like in the app. Talking to random people and, and being a part of this, no one wants to do anymore.

Laney Goff: Yeah, which is understandable, especially like if you're somebody who just doesn't like people. Valid.

Anna Dobbert: Real, real.

Laney Goff: So just to kind of recap the, the top tips okay. That you should be focusing on for social media. Number one, building your strategy. Number two, how do you stand out? How do you make yourself unique in your space?

And then you gotta build that foundation. Um, making sure that you're creating a system that works for you internally and making sure your profiles are optimized, and then building your community so that you can start to reap the rewards. And just remember that like, you know, once you've done steps one, two, and three, it frees up your time a little bit and you should put more energy into building the community.

Anna Dobbert: Yes.

Laney Goff: Let's not forget that.

Anna Dobbert: Yes. That is perfect. I a hundred percent agree.

Laney Goff: Well, um, I hope everybody appreciates everything that we delivered to them today. I am pretty sure this is Anna and I's last time being on the podcast together.

Anna Dobbert: It might get banned after this.

Laney Goff: You're right, you're right. But as always, Anna, I had the best time with you.

Anna Dobbert: I had the with you too, Laney.

Laney Goff: Thank you guys so much for tuning into Untamed Social and we'll see you next time.