Episode 118: Leveraging Technology in Social Media With Brian Fanzo

Leveraging technology can take many different forms: video, audio, social media, and more. The real key ingredient is one-to-one interactions in a public forum. This week Brian Fanzo discusses how to do just that. Brian Fanzo inspires, motivates and educates businesses on how to leverage emerging technologies and digital marketing to standout from the noise and reach the Millennial and Generation Z consumers. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss There's a lot of noise in this world between the Internet, the 24-hour news cycles, and more. The best way to cut through the noise is to just press the damn button! It doesn't have to be video or audio. It can be any one-to-one conversations in a public forum. This can extend to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. to help build trust online and keeping that trust online (the hardest part!). Show Highlights What is "press the damn button?" [2:20] How do you lose trust from your online audience? [5:45] What is the best way to build people's trust and keep it? [6:45] Tell us the name of your podcast and where can people listen? [9:00] How can we get over trying to be perfect? [11:00] What is upcycling? [17:00] What's the difference between recycling and upcycling? [19:00] How can people find you online? [24:00] Links Brian's Website: www.isocialfanz.com Brian's Podcast: http://www.isocialfanz.com/fomofanz/ Amy Landino's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9gMSj0UUxGvgfpNhhF3Jw Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’   Transcript: This is episode 118 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar Jump and Scale Your Business, my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right people that will help scale your pet sitting business. In Jump and Scale, I will teach you step-by-step processes that will help you find out who your ideal candidate is, how to create kick-ass advertisements to attract them, and how to make the selection process simple. Plus, you'll also receive worksheets to make implementing all of this into your business easier than you can imagine. This is a must-attend if you have staff, want to grow, feel like you're being held hostage by your own business, have high turnover, are way too involved in the hiring process, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results that you want. Join me for the Jump and Scale Your Business three-part training series. Register now for free at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I have a very exciting guest for you. His name is Brian Fanzo, and he inspires, motivates, and educates businesses on how to leverage emerging technologies in digital marketing to stand out from the noise and reach millennial and Generation Z consumers. Brian: Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Bella: I am so happy that you are finally here. It's been a long time coming, and I'm just excited to expose you to my audience full of dog walkers and pet sitting business owners. A lot of them are big movers and shakers, and they finally got their business running with employees and stuff. They're really ready to start creating and developing their own strong brand in their community through video and all kinds of content. I know you have so much to talk about. I'd love for you to tell us all about "press the damn button," how easy it is to do it—which is your key phrase—and also this upcycling you do. Brian: I believe everybody has a story to tell. It doesn't mean everybody's story is great, but everyone has a story to tell. The best way to stand out from the noise—amid fake news, bad news, and everything else—is to tell your story. We connect with stories. The reason your business is successful is because of you—your individual skills and who you are as a human. In the last nine years or so, digital and social media made us distance ourselves from what made us great: our story. Offline, we talk about passion and why we love what we do, but online, we just post broadcasts, sales pitches, and generic messages. Millennials and Gen Z—really, any digital natives—see through sales pitches. We don't like being marketed to. We're smarter consumers with more content in our faces and more distractions. So how do we stand out? It comes down to pressing the damn button and telling your story. The “damn button” doesn’t have to be video or audio; it just needs to be something. I love Facebook groups, Twitter, and especially Instagram right now, but so much of it is about one-to-one conversations in a public forum. Whether it's a group or your Instagram page, if your business is starting to take off, the question becomes: how do you stand out and tell your story? Nobody cares about what you do; we care about why you do what you do and how it impacts others. People care when you care. Every business is in the business of trust. The question is: how are you building trust online, and how are you not losing it online? Bella: Back up—because you just said something really important that nobody talks about: keeping the trust. Brian: I think that’s the hardest part. Building trust takes time, but losing trust is instantaneous. You lose it by not showing up consistently, by talking at people, by ignoring them, or by not managing expectations. Consistency is powerful. I recently missed a couple of podcast weeks and saw a massive drop in my numbers—it was my fault. Consistency doesn’t mean daily; it means doing what you say you’ll do. Building trust—and what I call social equity—is all about giving value consistently so that when you finally make an ask, people are willing to help. Many people misuse that equity, asking for meaningless likes instead of using it strategically. Losing trust also happens when you don’t respect people’s time—like over-posting or spamming inboxes. If someone expects one email per week and suddenly you send three, they’ll unsubscribe. Respect people’s time and attention. When you do have it, don’t waste it. Bella: Okay, so tell everyone what your podcast is so they can find it. Brian: It’s called FOMO Fans—that’s F-O-M-O F-A-N-Z. My goal is to cure your fear of missing out. I test things out and translate them back to the audience. Episode 83 goes live this week. Bella: So if trust is built on consistency, I want to challenge our listeners to ask themselves—what will you be consistent about, and at what frequency? It could be once a month; just pick something and stick with it. Now, Brian, I want to shift gears. My followers may have seen me with Snapchat glasses filming in the water with my daughter and teasing everyone, saying dog walkers should use them too. These could really help them tell stories uniquely. You actually inspired me to get them. So can you talk about doing things scared or imperfectly? Brian: Perfection is a fairy tale. No one is perfect—no business, no person, no day. We overthink things. I’m just as guilty. I’ve been writing a book for two and a half years and haven’t pressed the damn button on it. My imperfect moments have built more trust than anything else. When I drop the camera during a live video or my daughter walks into frame, people relate to me. Perfection and control are illusions. People buy from people they can relate to. Perspective matters too. How can you give people a new perspective on your business? As a dog walker, you’re competing locally in a trust-based business. Show people your mindset, your process, and your personality. Use tools like Snapchat glasses or your phone—give your audience your point of view. Great content is king, but you don’t decide what’s great—your audience does. You only find out by putting content out there and seeing what sticks. I try new things constantly and lean into what works. Bella: That’s so true. Amy Landino is a great example. She’s been consistent for years with her YouTube channel Amy TV. Our community actually did a book club on her book Vlog Like a Boss. Brian: Yes! Amy’s amazing. I was one of her first 500 subscribers, and now she’s nearing 300,000. I actually met her husband, Vin, through my cat. Funny story. I was in Barcelona for Dell, creating 20 hours of video content. Then a friend texted me about a new app called Meerkat—basically live video before Facebook Live or Periscope existed. I went live, one person joined, and asked me to show something in the distance. That moment changed everything. After that, I realized the audience decides what’s great. Since then, I’ve done 2,300 live videos. Live streaming let me tell my story my way. If you like writing, press the damn button and blog more. If you like talking, start a podcast. If you like video, don’t be afraid to film. And that’s where “upcycling” comes in. When we create great content—a podcast, a video, an interview—the hard part is getting it in front of the right audience. People learn differently. Upcycling means taking one great piece of content and repurposing it across platforms: clip quotes for Twitter, make a one-minute Instagram video, post the transcript as a blog, etc. Stop creating content for content’s sake. Create one great piece, then upcycle it for each platform. I take my one 35-minute podcast recording each week and turn it into eight pieces of content. People think I’m everywhere, but really I only create for 45 minutes a week and spend 90 minutes repurposing.