Positively Gam: Lala Milan & Maureé Bowman - Social Media Hacks

I knew when I wanted to talk about social media on my podcast that I had to get the social media guru, the goddess herself, and she has had countless videos go viral. Hey, Gamy, what's going on? I don't know if people remember that you and I interacted a little bit for our TT You know, yes we did. I'm like them because I say, and me always gonna call me when she got a question for some exactly and I listen, it's gotten no better. As a matter

of fact, it's probably gotten worse. So let's just just not on another platform. They're getting you together on the podcast, the zone and stuff that I was trying. We're gonna see how that works out. I love it so your career was founded on some of the biggest social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook. But for some of my listeners who may not know your work, can you tell us about the video that really went viral? And

I actually just watched it and it was hilarious. I'm embarrassed, but sure. The video was basically a parody of Fatty Wasps trap Queen, and I basically spoke my truth and I said, I'm not gonna be a trap queen. I'm not holding you down and all that extra stuff. I'm snitching. I'm gonna be a rat queen. That's pretty much what shot my career off in the social media aspect, and I just kept it going from there. Which platform do you use the most? You use TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube.

Which one is your favorite? Now? My favorite is TikTok, But I used Instagram and TikTok just because I noticed that there's a whole different audience on TikTok than there is on Instagram. But they love when you're active. Okay, see, I don't even I don't even have TikTok. You did a TikTok with me? I did? I? Did you you remember how that went though. You killed it, You killed it. Okay, I was a little stiff, lah Lah, I was a little stiff. And look, let me tell it. The whole

family had the moves. Okay, I need more practice. Let me tell you what I did though, I remember what was it that came out that everybody was doing, Like towards the beginning of COVID, the Savage thing. I took one day at once. Atter day, I was in the house by myself. This was early or I was on YouTube for about three hours NU trying to learn that dance. It was a catastrophe. Same, here's the thing, and I already know it was horrible because I couldn't even do that.

All the extra movements and the fluid that you gotta be, I couldn't even keep up with that. So I just let that one go on by That's what I should have done too, because it didn't work. Give me one celebrity that you wish would follow you on Instagram. If I had to choose the celebrity I wish would follow me on Instagram, I would say Ava Duvernet I want. Initially it was Lena Way, but now it's Ava Duvernet because I want her to see me and have me

on her mind all the time. So that way, when she does a film, if she needs a character who she feels like I can relate to, she'll have me and mine all the time I pop up on her timeline. That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good pick. That's a smart pick. How has going viral changed your life? Because I'm sure it has. It definitely has in more ways than one. First of all, it caused me to move to l A, the Land of the Stars, a place I never thought i'd be able to afford. Where

are you from? Um from Charlotte, North Carolina. Okay, When I was living in Atlanta before I moved to l A, and people will always tell me you need to go to l A. And I was like, I don't need to go there if people want me to fly me out. That was a whole line. Once I got on the scene,

it was in insight in mine. Yeah, I would have to say that being able to afford living in l A or the circle of people that I'm around, there's different people who I'm friends with, who you know, I interact with on a regular basis, who I never would have imagined and that's a really cool thing to me. People who have taken me under their wing, just even differently. It's I don't want to say I'm living the life of what I thought a celebrity would live. Do I

refer to myself as such. No, but I'm definitely living a celebrity life. Like how I used to look at people and be like, Wow, that's the life. I'm living it now, and I'm blessed to say that. That's amazing. Sometimes it just gets down to who being in the right place at the right time, being able to network with the right people. I always say, when you network, you increase your network. That's why when you ask who do I wish will follow me, it's something. It's not

just a regular person who I idolize. No, let's make it make sense. Let's make it make money exactly. Yeah, let's make it help you out. Yeah, what you're trying to do? What would you be doing right now? If I hain't gone viral, I would be working sitting out a desk, working in insurance. More than likely I was. That's what I was doing before I had went Barrow.

I was working at All State. I was just there every day nine to five literally with weekends off, trying to just live as great a life as I could. But corporate was never for me anyways. I was always bored. I was never motivated to meet goals, to build somebody else's empire. I was just over it. That was really good for you moving out to l A. Moving out to l A was amazing. Yes, So how did you

pivot your social media fame into an acting career? Because I remember when I first turned on Boomerang, I was like, no, it's literally because I didn't come down to what we mentioned before networking. So I had mettling away at the MTV Movie and TV Awards and when I saw her, I freaked out, but I freaked out in my head and I remained calm, sternally, and I approached her and

told her, listen, I love you. I love your work, because at that time, the shot I just came out and I looked up behind me and pretty much she said, she said I love you too. In my head, I was like, why don't you follow me? But we ended up connecting and she gave me her real number, and I was blown away because I was like, wow, Hollywood. I said, she probably gonna change her number, just like Janet Jackson did after filming with Tupac, but she didn't.

She ended up giving me her number and I text her just telling her what's a pleasure of me and her and I kept in touch, trying to just build an organic relationship, and eventually we did and she was like, I texted at the right time and she said, you're always on my mind. Come audition for this role. And that's how I got And then I had got on cause because I had as I didn't even want to reach out to Nis for being on cause. I asked her can she teach me how to do stand up?

And she said, I don't really know too much about stand up, but I could get you on cause I said, hey, that works too. Wow. So yeah, just each role that I've got, and it's been because I'm not afraid to approach people and tell them how I appreciate them, or even as for their assistance. As for their assistance, that's what I that's what I'm hearing that you've been careless. Absolutely yeah, because you gotta go for like nothing, nobody it's a it's a million and one people are here

and everybody's trying to be successful. So you have to go after what you have to go after what you want as long as it makes sense in that moment. You know, I've been in rooms with a lot of people who I wanted to approach, but it wasn't the time. So you do have to be diplomatic about it and not be a passionately because next thing you know, people said, down eating dinner what they family and you like, listen, can you please, you know, put me on the showness

I'm not right now in my mind. If that's the case, I'll just gonna say, love your work weight and keep it pushing because I'm feeling like you're gonna see me again. I'm gonna see you again when it's right. You're doing

many things like you have your podcast said. I'm excited about my podcast The Salon simply because on Instagram people always, of course I'm the funny girl, and people see me just as that one sided individual being funny and not said, not realizing that there's so much more to me than just the character who they think is the real me

on my Instagram. I'm excited to bring the different aspects of jay Lo Wilson to the forefront and the Salon by having actual conversations, having conversations about everything relating to relationships, sexuality, friendships, business, money, all kinds of things that I'm super knowledgeable about. So I'm really looking forward to that. Mind you, I'm I'm

naturally comedic, so you're gonna be entertained regardless. But I always feel like just like you would in a salon, just like you're talking to your home girls and they come in and talk about something and it's real and raw, and that's what I love. Now. I know absolutely nothing when it comes to social media, so I want to talk about some of the challenge that I have when I'm dealing with these platforms Like La La you already know, so I invited Murray Sullivan, the founder of Miss Digital.

Miss Digital is a digital agency that empowers individuals to thrive on social media and build their brands. So welcome, Murray. Thank you for joining La La and I and your goals you young ladies should be to help gave me figure out what the hell is going on. I got you here, You're gonna get you right. You're gonna be fine by the time we've done all right, Murray. So,

when it comes to learning a new social platform. What is a piece of advice you would give to some of your older clients when let's say, like when recording a video for Instagram lens for to yourself. Oh it's blurry. You don't you have makeup you're touching all the time, so that oil that you know, oil on both sides. Actually, since we're talking about taking selfies, I'm sorry, I still cannot take a selfie, all right. I told her she has to find the sun. Finds it though, find your life. Okay,

but people say that all the time. Where where am I is? It supposed to be behind me, on the side of me. It should be in front of you. So if the sun is in front of you, you put your phone right where the sun is and that's your life, Like it's gonna come to you and you're gonna be glowing. So you want to keep that energy. You don't want it to be behind you because it's gonna look like you're really doctors shadow. Okay, So how can I take a selfie that doesn't make my nose

look huge? Put it up a little bit, put your phone up when you're taking higher eg y'all can't see. But right now, because she's giving you the angles. I could tell you the app faith to go ahead and path to not knows and pimp. Okay, yes, you could just have you a small low nose alteration. Girl. I might have it on my phone and don't know how to use it. It's true that smooth button that's a whole thing. Smooth will make you look filter. It'll take

off anything that's wrong. You can you know about in patch limit ship. So sometimes if something is annoying or a pimp or something that's in sight, I will use patch to literally take a piece of skin from somewhere else and patch it there to make it perfect. Oh there's so many Yes, indeed, yeah, it's like photo shot, but it's the app. Everybody does it, So don't even feel bad. Now what I don't do I don't filter beyond looking like myself. You don't want to be a captish.

Is there a social platform designed for with older people in mind? Because I know when Facebook first came out, it was really marketed to college age kids to relate and find each other. So is there any kind of app or social media platform that's get more towards older people? In my opinion, I feel like Instagram is the easiest to yus. They're trying to make them a bit more

user friendly, but they didn't start out that way. Let me just say that I love Instagram because it's really mostly about posting the pictures, right, It's not as much about the comments exactly. I mean, it's about the comment, or is it. Yes, Instagram thrives on the comments too, That's why you posted the picture. The comment that shares the likes. Instagram for sure is about the comment. Now, you may not pay attention to yours, but a lot of people do so moray and la la. Don't you

say a word for this one? Why do the layouts of the social media platforms look different on your computer than it does on your phone? And it doesn't have anything to do with the size of the font. If I go to zoom on my computer, I can see the screen that tells you to mute to yourself do you want to use your video? But if I join a meeting from my phone on zoom, I can't see anything. So I'm at the meeting. People can't see my face and I don't know the stuff is not there, so

it's still there. Gammy is just minimized so that you can really just see your face on Zoom. This is just room. Particularly a lot of these apps, they're going to have mobile versions because it's supposed to be easier for the user. They need to make it a little bit more user friendly, especially Zoom, because everybody's on it right now. So I don't think I have the Zoom app, And what's happening is people are just texting me the

link and I'm just hitting the problem. And so we need to download the Zoom app because then a friendly Okay, So that's what I need to do, all right, So La La, What are some of the basics when you sign up for some of these social media platforms like Instagram?

What are the basics to like posting a picture? And when you're posting your picture, I'll always make sure it's a good quality photo, like Murray was saying, and like we were telling you earlier, found your Like I told you this once before, make sure when you post your photo that you're posting a correct dimension of it, because you don't want to cut off your head. You want to make sure that you can actually see the photo on your feed, even whenever it's on your actual page.

The grade. You want to make sure that the picture is formattic correctly to where a certain part is shown. So that's a good thing. Also copper hashtags, but not flooding with hashtag. Hold up right there, that hashtag is a whole thing for me because I maybe I'm not even sure what the purpose of hashtag is. I'll give you a prime example. A lot of times, when I am out of town and I'm looking for either a makeup artists or hairstylas whose local, I'll search your hashtag.

I'll look for Atlanta braider, and when I click the hashtag, there's so many braiders in Atlanta who pop up because they use the hashtag. So the purpose of a hashtag pretty much is for people to find your picture or video that's relevant to what they are searching for. See I I thought hashtag was just like a cute phrase or like a phrase that you wanted to can be back as well. Some people like to use their own

hash hag when it's outside of business. Some people like to use their hashtag to identify a mood or how they're feeling, how that picture, what that picture has given Now for me personally, when I do a video that I feel is about to trend, I put my own hashtag. For example, when I did the parody of Beyonce's Blackest King, I did hashtag Disney minus because hers was playing on Disney Plus. I did a bootleg version Disney Minus so I could click and see how many people were reposting

my video. So hashtags have multiple purposes. It just depends what you use social media for. It's just a lot. It really is. When you post on your page, like, for example, when clips from your show say you do positively gam, you could do hashtag positively gam. And anytime somebody is talking about your show, you can literally click and see everything or everybody who's posted about those topics.

The other question I have to ask is is when you're on Instagram and you're supposed to know when people reply or respond to it, is it something that I'm like, am I How am I supposed to know? Get a notification when somebody comments? I probably don't have my notifications on. That's good because I feel like it would be too much. Your phone would be beeping all the time. It will

and keep you addicted to your phone. So the way that you can check your notifications if when you post a picture, there's the bell icon on both Facebook and Instagram. That simply means notifications. So you can click that and scroll through and see what's been going on either of your pages or a platform. So I clicked the bell, click the bell that said, what is DM even stand for? Now, people who you don't follow, and they tell you to check your d M, you press requests how any requests

to you? Hay, So when you press that, you can read all of the random people who are messaging you. Now here's a good thing to know. When you click on their message, you do not have to accept it. Okay, you can literally click it, open it, be nosy and leave out. They will never know that. Okay, that's good to know. Don't go go and press and except because then they're gonna say she saw my message and didn't respond. Go to the next one, but do not accept. Just

simply press back after you open it. If it's of no interest to you, all right, then the ones that will be in primary or the people you follow or you've messaged before. So those are people that you want to see their d M s. Got it? Got it? Got it? And what's general general is pretty much where you can it's basically giving you the option to sort

your messages. You can put a message in a general folder if you want to keep an eye on that one, or you can keep it at primary is from people who you know, but you can choose to sort them. And can you just elete all of that? You short came all right, La La, I know that you have to go. Thank you so much for joining us. Good luck on your podcast, and is there anything that you want to highlight that you have coming up? Please tell listeners where to find you all of that good stuff.

Simply always find me by the name at La La Malan on every single platform. I do different content on each platform. Also, my podcast, as we mentioned, the Salon is on every streaming platform, Apple, Spotify, Stitch You're is called The Salon with Lala Milan and I subscribe to announce. Thank you so much. I will definitely do that. Thank you for having me and Maria was a pleasure me and you take care of Thank you they you so

much for hanging in there with me. Hopefully I'll be just a little bit wiser by the time this is all set and done. Okay, how do you increase your followers and likes? Nowadays? One of the best ways is cross promotion. Basically, what that is you have to connect with somebody who has a bigger following than you, and when they post you on their page, it's going to draw followers. That's one of the easiest things and it

has really rapid growth. And then also consistency. People are not necessarily going to follow you if you are only posting once a month, once every two months. When you're consistent with it and they know they can come to you for content, they're gonna come back. So what do you consider consistent? Because I just feel because I am not, I have to be honest, I am not and I do understand the importance of it based on what I'm trying to do now, like with the podcasts and with OURTC.

I just of like it's a lot for me. So what is what do you consider consistent? Is it once a week? Is it every day? Is it? Oh my gosh. I think a good starting point would be at least two to three times a week to stay consistent like that. It's going to help your followers just know that they

can come to you for content. And I guess I have to figure out the difference between like posting for business and posting something personal that should probably be two separate pages, right, No, because you're brand is who you are. It's gonna help you not hurt. So you can post about the business while also posting about your life. And what it does is it actually builds an organic community who not only cares about the business, but they care

about the person attached to it. So when you do that, it's actually going to increase how much people care about the brand because there's now an emotional connection to your personal life and everything else you got going on. I want to back up a little bit and I want you to actually explain what branding is. Branding is what people see or what they think about when they see you. Basically, it is your overall message and your mission. That's what

people want to see. They want to see you have advice to them, telling how they can do what you're doing. Where do you go for inspiration on how to be creative with your postings? I really love pinteress to get design ideas and concepts. Pinterest is like a constant move board for me. Wow, I never I would have never considered that. Yeah, I would prefer that. Pinterest allows you to do that and more fun way, make boards about it. See what concept you want to come up with. Furniture

and closing and design and graphics. It's all there. Yeah, and that's what I've typically used Pinterest for. I used Pinterests when I was planning my wedding. I used Interests. Like now, my husband and I have a new home and we're trying to decorate, and so I use Interests a lot for that. But I never thought of it as far as being creative with social media. Yes, look up graphic tiplate's on in interest. All of that is there. Okay, that's awesome. Thank you so much, Murray for joining us.

I so appreciate it. I think that I'll be a little bit better with social media from this. We'll see. We'll see. I guess you have to gauge by my posting. Absolutely, Yeah, just consistency, trying some new things, doing some more engagement, that kind of stuff. It's gonna be good. Okay. Before we go, Murray, please tell the listeners where they can find you on social media. You can follow me on Murray and make you r Et Sulevant. That's my Instagram.

And if you're looking for any social media help, you can visit my website and this digital dot agency. We'll definitely do talk again. Thank you so much to our guests La La Milan and Moray Sullivan. So here are my few takeaways. Number one, when your network, you increase your net worth. Number two, good light is imperative for a selfie. Put the camera in front of the sun, not behind. Number three. Use pinterest for created by ideas on what to post. Number four, try face tune for

touching up your photos. Don't get discouraged, guys. I know it was a lot. It still feels like it's a lot for me. You might have to listen to this podcast a second time or reach out to some of the younger folks in your life to try to help you out during these times of isolation. Social media platforms are taking over the ways right now, but let's not forget the importance of actually hearing someone's voice on the other end of the phone, especially during these times of isolation.

Thank you guys for listening, and please share with me your thoughts on the episode on my Instagram and Facebook at Adrian Banfield Naris using the hashtag positively gam Follow the podcast, and remember vote Vote Vote Vote. November three

is right around the Corner, Stay Grateful. Positively gam is produced by Westbrook Audio Executive producers Adrian Banfield, Narris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Amanda Brown and Fallon jethro Co Executive producer sim Hoti, Segment producer Ash Francis, Associate producer Erica ron at A, turn mixer Calvin Balen. Positively Gam is in partnership with Art nineteen s S The Bots