Welcome to the mindful marketing podcast. This is the episode where I get my That's So Raven moment and predict the future of social media. This is my 6th time doing an episode like this, and I absolutely love it because I feel like I can pull out my crystal ball and talk about where I see social media and really marketing going at large. So let's dive in to the mindful marketing podcast. Before we do that, though, wanna share a little word from our
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previous years. I went back and listened to all 5 episodes that I've done so far, and y'all, a lot of my predictions come true. So I'm not saying that, you know, I am, you know, gifted or anything, but, I know I think a thing or 2 about social media and marketing. So I will start the episode with a little bit of overview of what the difference of tactics and strategies are. I'm gonna talk about my predictions from
last year and previous years, how those have come through. I'm gonna talk about the next year's predictions. And at the end, I do share a little bit of a personal update on where I am at in my business and how I see that going into 2025. Now, I also always like to start off this conversation with the tactics versus strategy, because tactics to me are different than strategy. Strategies is your overarching marketing plan. It's how you show up in the world. So
for me, for instance, I'm a talker. I love audio and video. And I love being tactile in the way that I talk about marketing. That's my strategy. Tactically, that shows up in my podcast, and it shows up in micro video content, specifically right now on Instagram and TikTok. Okay? So tactically, Instagram and TikTok. If something changes and there's a new micro video platform, you bet your bottom dollar, I'm gonna take that
over to the new micro video platform. Right? So that's the tactic that's working right now. Alright. I will also give a little bit of a teaser of my word of the year because that's gonna show up a few times in this episode. I every year give myself a word of the year. It's my guiding light, my North Star for how I approach my business. This year, I'm entering in my Taylor Swift reputation era, so my word of 2025 is reputation. To me, this is all about owning my impact, making intentional
connections, and building strong and authentic brand image. I want to be known for social media mindfulness and mindful marketing. That's my goal for this year, become a known entity in that category. When you think of social media mindfulness, you think of Andrea Jones. Okay? Alright. So let's take a look at past episodes. I was listening back through them, and one of the thing that stuck out to me is in 2022, I predicted that there is going to be a focus on human centered real content.
It feels like real life is taking center stage, and this has become even more apparent this year in 2024, and I think it's gonna continue into 2025. Brands, entities aren't really, people don't really wanna see, like, polished brand ads. Right? Like, as soon as we identify something as an ad, what do we do? We wanna skip it as quickly as possible. And so it's not the advertisements themselves that are capturing people's attentions in their hearts. It's the real, the raw, the humanness of it all.
People based content is going to be emphasized. K? I'm not saying if you're a brand and an entity, you can't be. Right? Think of, you know, your Starbuckses, your Nikes of the world. They're still brands, but notice who is sharing their brand message and their brand stories? People. Usually, right now, influencers and celebrities. K? So people based content is still going to win. That was a prediction I had in 2022 that will continue. And in 2023, I talked about the rise of
AI and AI driven marketing. And I talked about this from a lens of digital burnout and how we will have a lack of trust in brands who use AI. And interestingly, this is a prediction that hasn't really, manifested in the way that I predicted. AI driven marketing is still here, and it's here to stay. But there's not this digital burnout with AI specifically. In fact, I think AI is becoming more and more widely accepted. There are
certain communities that are very against artificial intelligence. But on the whole, it seems like people are kind of adapting to this new way of thinking. Specifically, I wanna call out Meta AI, which I did not like when it first launched. But recently, I was scrolling through Facebook as one does, and I saw a post with, like, 500 comments. And then Meta AI popped up at the top and said, here's a summary of the,
sentiment of these comments. Most people said this, some people said that, and I was like, oh, this is great. Okay. So I think AI tools in that use case, people are actually really enjoying them. I can see this applied to other platforms. Like, for instance, I would love to see this Amazon, and Amazon's checkout. Like, they already have, you know, certain things like, you know, you are this size, so this
product may probably fit you with this size. But I would also love the comment section to be like, most people found this to be too small or most people found this to wear down. Like, I would love to see that happen with artificial intelligence. But I think the key thing going into 2025 with AI and marketing specifically is that brands need to be very sophisticated in how they leverage AI. Like, we as marketers, as business owners, need to uplevel the the sophistication
behind AI. We're not talking about putting in chatty bd saying, write a social media post. K? But one of the things that we done we did recently in, my mindful marketing lab is take all of our testimonials. K? The the the nice things that people say. Put them into your AI tools, your ChatGPT, your Gemini, your Claude, and say, hey. Can you give me the running feedback of all this client testimonial? You know, tell me the sentiment. What do
people like about this product the most? What do they find most impactful? And then you can use those words in your marketing. To me, this is where sophistication with AI is going. And, I think impactful use of AI can actually free up time for more humanness behind the brand. K? Alright. So here are my predictions
for 2025. We're gonna start with AI. So I believe that there is going to be an increased amount of trust with AI and using AI not as the star of a show, but more of a a background and supporting role. AI is going to become a tool. It streamlines content. It makes connecting easier and faster, but we need to. We absolutely must have a distinctly human touch to the things that we do with our interactions. Okay? So making artificial intelligence and
AI distinctly you. I think, again, Meta is playing around with this in a very interesting way. I don't think we're there yet, but they created these AI characters this year. You know, things like you could talk to Snoop a Snoop's AI, or you could build one for your own brand. I think that that's interesting. We're labeling it as AI, so there's no confusion. People know they're talking to a robot, but the responses are in a voice that is very distinct and unique. I think that could be
interesting. I also think that, there's gonna be continued premium on human content. So the content that only humans can make, mistakes and all. So for example, behind the scenes content, personal stories, how I content versus how to content is going to be on the rise. K? It's going to be on a rise, and this is where that reputation word comes back into play. A brand's reputation is going to be at stake if we don't clarify what what is AI and what isn't. And I see this
specifically with people doing deepfakes. This year and last year, this has been like, it's just so wild. People are creating deepfakes of certain celebrities, putting them as advertisements, and then using those deep fakes. So AI created video content or image content and then, you know, scamming people. K? Scams will always be a thing. However, I think with AI, the scamming is going to be even more
I think even more people are gonna start being scammed. Okay? So as a brand, as a business owner, really tripling down on, like, we're humans here and tripling down on, like, if it's AI generated. I don't think AI is bad. I think it's just different. And to me, this feels a lot like, when people when when televisions came out and people were like, oh, it's the end of radio. Radio's going away. But radio hasn't gone away. It's just evolved. Right? It's just changed. It's it's
caught up with the times. Now we have Internet radio. Right? Now we have podcasts, and we have lots of audio experiences like audiobooks. Those have not gone away. The medium of audio has not gone away. It's just changed over the years, and I think that's gonna be the same for AI. 2nd prediction. So the first one was AI driven landscape and building trust with your people by
being clear about how you're using AI. The second prediction is that community is going to be an ecosystem, not one platform. And I've been talking about this for years, but, the first time I brought up was in the 2022 predictions episode, but it's gonna become even more apparent going into 2025. K? Community is an ecosystem, not one platform. When people talk about my Instagram community, my YouTube community, my Facebook community, it is an ecosystem. And I'll give a very real
example of this. One of my members in my community, posted in our community, like, hey, does anyone know this specific thing? Then she DM'd me on Instagram. It was like, hey. Here's something that I'd love to get your thoughts on. And I know she's probably also gonna, like, be on Facebook with me and on threads and in my inbox. And I consider her a community member in all of those places, not any individual single place. And so community isn't about a single Facebook group or a LinkedIn page
or an Instagram account. Community is going to be about cultivating that, here's the word again, reputation across multiple platforms and building trust that carries over no matter where you are. And this is gonna become even more important as more and more social platforms kind of rise and fall. I recently signed up for Blue Sky. Again, purely as an experiment and as a test, because that is my job. However, I know that there are pockets of my people on Blue Sky
who don't just only follow me on that one platform. They probably follow on multiple platforms. I think this also can be very challenging, though, as a business owner because tracking the value of your community is going to become harder. It's nuanced. K? We're not talking about looking at Instagram and going, okay, what's
the value of my Instagram account? We're talking about something far more abstract of looking at a community member and going, okay, they found me on Instagram, they signed up for my email list, and now they listen to my podcast. They don't check any of my emails or my Instagram account anymore. They just listen to the podcast. And that's gonna be really hard to track. It's really hard to track that number.
So I think the value of word-of-mouth, influence and micro communities is gonna be even more important. How do you connect your community not only to you but to each other? That's through word-of-mouth influence where someone goes, hey. Have you heard of so and so? No. I haven't. Here, check out their Instagram. Or when they're on your Instagram, you go, hey, the main way that I connect with my community is in my email.
Make sure you subscribe there. Okay? It is, again, more challenging but more effective because we are having meaningful conversations and we're building brand loyalty no matter what the medium is, no matter what the platform is. But that also means there needs to be consistency across all of your marketing channels. And this is why I'm so invested into mindful marketing and marketing ecosystems. Because, yes, we have marketing distribution across
multiple channels. But, ideally, we have one signature way that people can connect with us. 1 or 2 signature ways that people can connect with us. So signature content is, again, so important in this community as an ecosystem, model versus community as a platform model. So I'll give an example with my own brand. My podcast, this very here podcast is the main way that I want people to consume my, let's say, thought leadership for simplicity's sake, my podcast. So
if someone meets me, I'm like, listen to podcast. Listen to podcast. Listen to podcast. Podcast comes up in every single newsletter. Podcast is every single social media platform. I talk about my podcast. Because to me, this is the primary way that I want people to consume my content. Secondarily is my emails, my email newsletter, and social is actually, 3rd on the list. K?
And even within social, there's a hierarchy. I tend to put more, emphasis on platforms like Instagram and threads, less emphasis on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, TikTok somewhere in the middle. And I don't even really log on to Pinterest. YouTube is like, it's on my wish list, but, you know, the podcast goes on YouTube and sometimes I create some YouTube videos. Right? It's not that, important in my marketing strategy for 2025.
So I want you to think about what your marketing ecosystem looks like, but also the hierarchy within that ecosystem because community is so important, but and your community members will come into your community and bounce around in your community in so many different ways. K? So we talked about AI. We talked about community as an ecosystem. I gotta talk about the algorithm, mister Al. K? Mister Al is getting more sophisticated. And because of that, follower
number does not matter as much as it did. K? People are discovering you. Your relevance to them is based on how the algorithm views your content, not based on whether they follow you or not. I don't know if you've noticed, but every single social app is like this now. You log in to Facebook, you log in to Instagram, you go to YouTube, you go to TikTok, every single one of them is helping you discover new content, and your feed is, very mixed bag of people you follow and people you don't follow.
So your actual follower count, it doesn't matter. What matters is how the algorithm views your content. So you, as a content creator, as a business owner, need to speak the algorithm's language. Algorithms will favor brands who have positive reputation, who have established community connections. That means people are not just talking to you in the comments, they're talking to each other, and who they're sharing your content. K? And Instagram has been really great.
Adam Messeri, head of Instagram, has been really great about breaking down what this means specifically. Recently, he said that content that is shared, so share worthy content, is a number one signal of relevance to the algorithm. So that means if people hit that little paper airplane emoji and share your content, the algorithm goes, oh, this must be important. Let's share it and show it to more people. K? It's giving your
content credibility when people share it. Secondarily, engagement other forms of engagement outside of sharing is still important. It's not likes and comments, though. It's it's nuanced. It's watch time. It's quality conversation. K? Not just any old like, any old comment, but are people talking to each other? Are people not just starting the video, but watching a significant portion of it? Are they completing watching that video? K? This is even more important now more than ever.
I see the types of content in my feed that the algorithm, you know, assumes that I wanna watch. It's not business related because lately, I haven't really been consuming a lot of business related content. I'm consuming stuff like how to, you know, how to feed my picky toddler who's not eating anything but cheese and bread right now. Right? And so the algorithm's like, here's meal planning for your 2 year old. And I'm like, how
does it know I have a 2 year old? It's because I continue to watch that content even though I never like it and I never share it. K? And so the advanced nuance of the algorithm is gonna be even more important to business owners heading into 2025, and you gotta learn to speak that algorithm's language. Lastly, as we head into 2025, I want you to think about your own reputation as a business owner, especially outside of a singular marketing platform. Because we talked about how AI is on
the rise. We talked about how community is ecosystem. We talked about how the algorithm is even more advanced. And so my prediction is that going into 2025, all content marketing is going to need to be reputation building marketing because we're entering into the era of sophistication in marketing. This is, what I've I've seen this term thrown around a lot, social media 3 point o. We're headed into social
media 3 point o. It's not simple anymore. It's not take the same graphic, square graphic, post it to Facebook, to Twitter, to Instagram, dust off your hands, and call it a day. K? It's far more nuanced than that, and it focuses in on, a more advanced user. We have been engaging on social media for 10, 15 years now. K? Like, as as a collective, as, like, something that has mass appeal. Right? When Facebook, I think, first became available to everyone is really when social media 2.0, in my
opinion, took off. Okay? So social media 1.0, it's like you were a nerd, you had to get it, Or you were just young and didn't and had all the time in the world. Right? And you were on, you know, Myspace or LiveJournal or whatever we were on back in the day. And then Facebook became publicly available to everyone. Now everyone and their mom is on Facebook. That's social media 2.0. Social media 3.0, more nuanced. We are more advanced as a
collective in how we experience social media. So brands will actually need to develop a character. I think about this from all the way from big brands to small brands and everything in between, and that characterization will go across all of your marketing channels. I taught a class recently in the mindful marketing lab called profit from your POV where we talked about this
in-depth. Your your brand's unique point of view is why people will connect with your brand, why they will follow with your brand, why they will engage with your brand, why they buy with your brand, and then why they become a brand advocate. It is not because of one post they saw one time. K? Sometimes that works. It rarely works these days. We wanna see something on Facebook, and then we ask a friend indirect message. We sign up for an email newsletter. We listen to the
podcast for 2 years, and then we buy something. K? We research the heck out of it. We're reading Amazon reviews. We're we're going to Facebook groups. We are interacting with the community on an entirely different level. We want recommendations. We want people to say this is good. We want people to vouch for it, and that requires character development and a deep, deep understanding of your brand's
reputation. K? I think reputation is gonna be, reputation means that you're gonna have to be actively involved with your community. Pull them into the process. I talked last year about interactive marketing, and interactive marketing is gonna be even more important in the future. It's no longer a brand saying, buy my stuff. It's a brand listening and using things like memes, using things like trending content, using things like what's happening in the world around you to speak the
language of what's happening here now and stay in that moment. Because we're so connected on social media too, we have higher expectations of brands. Like, if a brand just comes out here like, okay. Let's say, Starbucks, for instance. If Starbucks just comes out and says, it's pumpkin spice latte season, buy it now, we go, okay. Like, we knew that this was coming,
and the people who like it like it and the people who don't don't. If Starbucks is trying to bring more people into the p pumpkin spice latte fold, they need to do something different to attract different audiences. Okay? We can't just have the posters that are just like, this is the thing. Buy it. We kinda wanna have customer involvement. We wanna see the movement behind it. And is that harder? Yeah. But it's just where we are now as business owners.
Because of that, less is more. K? We are into interactive content and is the reputation era, but less is more. This is great because the algorithm will show your content if it's great. We don't need more content. We need better content. K? And that means listening to what your people are saying. So as we head into 2025, here are some of my practical tips, especially since I'm in my reputation era. I want you to be in your reputation era as well. I wanna focus in on authenticity, not
just being transparent, but being real. I think there's a difference in a curated authentic moment and not just saying, like, here's everything exactly as it is. I talk about this a lot, but it's almost like a reality TV show. There's a producer behind the scenes, right, producing that moment. I do think as business owners, there's a production level that we need to lean into into being authentic. And, again, I'm not saying manufacturing something that's not there, but curating it so that
it's a really tight story. K? And it's not just like word vomiting everything out into the Internet. I think that there is gonna be even more power and consistency across platforms and even creating micro consistency moments, Shamelessly or or maybe I should be ashamed of this, I follow an account on TikTok where it's a guy, chopping wood. I don't know how else to describe this, but, if you know, you know.
He just chops the wood, y'all, And he is a very attractive looking fellow and has millions of views on his videos of chopping wood. There's a consistency in how he's creating content, not just on TikTok, but across all the platforms. He's in, the know. Okay? He knows what people want, and there's a consistency there. I actually don't even know his name, but if I saw his video, I would recognize it. K? So I want you to have consistency
that's recognizable. Listen to your community, establish regular touchbacks with your people. You wanna understand what they're feeling. This requires listening. K? Reading the comments, but also being proactive, asking people. Have ask me anything sessions. Create feedback forms, especially from your your buyers. Like, learn what they want. I mentioned earlier about taking your testimonials and turning that into marketing. That's gonna be even more
important. I record my sales calls. I record the feedback that I get from my people. I even, created a new form for, like, first time buyers. If you come into my community, like, into the mindful marketing lab, I have a form for you to fill out right away immediately so I can get a better sense of what you need as a community member so I can put that into my marketing. 4th thing, quality over quantity. Less is more. Less is more. Thoughtfulness, mindfulness is going to be key
here. It's no longer, like, post up a quote and leave it. Like, we can't just have that moment. There's gonna be a thoughtfulness that's needed there. And then lastly, collaborative community driven content. I see this a lot on threads right now where the impact is in the conversation. K? The impact is in the conversation. Posting content is not the central focus of your marketing on social media. Community and conversation is. And either you're creating that conversation, so you're
starting it, or you're joining other conversations. It's not really about broadcasting. And social media, frankly, never has been, but as marketers, we slip into broadcasting mode very easily. It's no longer about broadcasting. It's about conversation and intentionality and the strength that comes from having those conversations. So as I head into 2025, my word of the year, as I mentioned, is reputation. I'm headed into my reputation era, but I
encourage you to think about your brand's reputation as well. What do you wanna be known for, and how can you align your marketing to reflect that? I wanna be known for social media mindfulness. So I'm aligning my marketing to reflect that. That actually means posting less on social media as an expert, as a social media marketer. I've been doing this for 10 years. That means I'm walking the talk. K? There's a value as well in building lasting assets. K? Social media is fly by night.
It it comes and goes. Trends rise and fall very quickly. I want you to think about the assets that outlast that. The assets that outlast social media fleetiness. K? I'm not saying social media isn't important. It it plays a very important role. It's just not that important. Okay? As I sign off on this episode, this predictions episode, I want you to think about what you're doing for 2025. How are you leaning into accepting or utilizing AI in your marketing? How are you making community
an ecosystem and not a platform? How are you leaning into the advancements of artificial intelligence? All of that is very impactful. And then, of course, if you have any questions, I'm here. I'm available. I I will be continuing to talk about it in this podcast, my YouTube channel. And if you're ready for more in the mindful marketing lab, coming up in December, I do my seasons of giving and I have lots of new content, AI content, algorithm content, and marketing ecosystem
content that I'm releasing to my members. Plus, I'll be doing audits for all of the members as well, taking a look at your marketing ecosystems and giving you feedback there. So stay tuned if you're in the lab. If you're not, come on in and join us. I hope to see you there. That's all for today. Bye for now.