Marketing Happy Hour - Driving Meaningful Brand Engagement on Social Media | Katherine Kauma, Social Strategist

Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Hey there, welcome back to Marketing Happy Hour. Today, an amazing guest is joining Erica, Catherine Kama, the social strategist behind iconic brands like Aura, Wheaties, and Caribou Coffee. Catherine is a true expert in crafting impactful social media strategies, and today she's here to share her insights on what makes a great strategy, the importance of educational content, and how to drive meaningful community engagement online. We'll also dive into some of the innovative campaigns and creative partnerships Catherine has led, as well as her predictions for where social media is headed in the back half of 2024 and even into 2025. This episode is packed with valuable takeaways that you do not want to miss. So as always, make sure you pour yourself a delicious beverage because it is time to get into the conversation with Catherine Kama. Hi, Catherine. How are you today? I'm good. How are you?

Starting point is 00:01:44 Doing so well. I'm so excited to chat with you. I know Cassie really wanted to be a part of this conversation as well, because we are both huge fans of the Aura brand, and I'm actually going to be purchasing my first Aura ring as a birthday present to myself, because my birthday is coming up here shortly. So I am excited to hear all about all the features that I will enjoy once I do. Always. But first, before we get into our conversation, I have to know what's in your glass this afternoon or what have you been recently loving during happy hour? I am very passionate about this answer.

Starting point is 00:02:25 I am drinking a Starbucks iced coffee with three pumps of white chocolate and light ice. It has been my go-to drink for the last seven years. And I have to admit, I get it every day. I know it's bad, but it's in the budget and I'm very, very passionate about it. Oh my gosh. That is incredible. I know they're coming out with their like fall drinks, obviously very early, like sometime in the end of August. So I'm really excited for that. And I think they have a new pecan or pecan, whatever, however everybody pronounces that word, but pecan spice or something like that. I'm really excited for that. I'm like pumped. In the fall, I typically, you know, go a little crazy. I add one pump of pumpkin to my current drink. So hey, you like stick with the classic, but get it.

Starting point is 00:03:11 How about you? What are you drinking? I actually just have this orange wine that I picked up from Woodland Wine Merchant. It's a wine shop in East Nashville that I love. And every time I'm in town, I love any excuse to like go there and grab something fun. So I have that. It's called, oh man, I might mispronounce this as well, but I think it's Caracante. And it's really good. I had a glass of it when I was in Nashville with some of my friends. And so I needed the bottle. So I grabbed that.

Starting point is 00:03:45 And then I also wanted to give a really big shout out because this just came in the mail. Um, what I'm snacking on with it, because, uh, I'm the biggest fan of Tabitha Brown and she has a line at Target and they like, I think it was last year or the year before they came out with this dill pickle popcorn. And it was, when I tell you, it was like the best thing I've ever tasted snack wise. And then they like obviously discontinued it. The partnership was over, blah, blah, blah. They brought it back, but it's not in store. It's only online. So I literally ordered this to my home to enjoy with my wine.

Starting point is 00:04:22 So that is what I'm snacking on. Dill pickle popcorn. It's the best. I don't know if you have any favorite snacks, but that's like highly recommended. I do love wine and a good snack. I typically go the cheese and cracker route. I just, I love it so much. And especially in the summertime, a charcuterie board, nothing better. Yes. And I could talk about snacks and wine and drinks and things all day long. But before we get into our conversation, I just want to ask, could you share a little bit about your background and how you came into the role that you currently hold? Yeah, definitely. I actually started my

Starting point is 00:04:56 career in the advertising world. I worked for an advertising agency in paid social and on the growth team. And I learned so much while I was doing that. But I also learned that I didn't want to be so in the weeds and the numbers as much as I was in that role. So I made a switch to an agency called The Socialites. And that's where I got to explore all things organic social media, I got to be really creative, I got to be on set, I got to do back end work through social media platforms. And I just loved it really creative. I got to be on set. I got to do backend work through social media platforms. And I just loved it so much. And I hit a point where I really wanted to go brand side and see what it was like on the other end of the spectrum. And so I found

Starting point is 00:05:36 Oura Ring and I've been at the company for a little over two and a half years and it's grown so much and it's just been really fun to be a part of that journey. However, I do have to sneak in there that anything I say on this podcast is my own opinion and not the opinion of the employers I worked for in the past. Yes, absolutely. And we want to get into some of those personal opinions here. So let's chat through social media strategy a little bit. What do you think are the key elements to a great strategy, especially in the wellness space? And are there any specific content buckets you aim for when you're thinking of social? Are there any different pillars that you strive to hit?

Starting point is 00:06:15 Give us a little insight into that. Definitely. I think the most important thing about strategy is you have to answer three questions about the who, what, and why. I think you have to be really clear on who your brand is, what you do, and then why does it matter for the consumer. I think once you've answered those, then you can dive into some more strategic elements of that social strategy, like balancing educational and product focused content with the humorous and trend focused content.

Starting point is 00:06:46 But I think all strategies should be really balanced out to make sure that you're appealing to multiple different types of consumers. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And one thing that you guys do really well at your current company is educational content, because it is a space that maybe people aren't totally educated on. What role does that educational content play in your social strategy? And do you have any kind of standout examples of that type of content that

Starting point is 00:07:15 the audience loved or like learned a lot from? Yeah, that's such a great question. I think educational content is so important because it provides that real value. It's so tangible. And I think so much of social media, it's easy to get caught up in those humorous and trendy elements, but educational content needs to be such a core piece of your strategy if you are part of a wellness brand. And something that I've found to really help us push the boundaries on educational content is to infuse some of the content buckets together. For example, humor and educational content. A way you can do this is by starting an Instagram carousel out with like a meme about the topic you're going to discuss. And then once you swipe through, you'll see those tangible takeaways and educational pieces

Starting point is 00:08:02 that, you know, really make an impact with the audience. And I think it's a great way to capture the attention with a hook or a meme and then follow through with valuable insights. Oh, yeah, that's such a good point. That's so fun to infuse, you know, two of the content types together. I think that's a brilliant strategy. And I know this next question is going to be pretty broad because it's kind of just referring to social media strategies in general. But we want to provide some perspective and insight to brands that may not currently have a strong social media strategy where they're breaking out content into pillars or into

Starting point is 00:08:39 buckets. How do you think they can adjust what they're currently doing to implement a strategy like that? I don't know if in the past, maybe you have done that yourself, but, um, what do you think some good advice for a brand out there might be? Yeah, I definitely think going back to that who, what, why question is so important and you have to understand your audience. And I think so many people are afraid to experiment and do something wrong. And I think you just have to get in there and see what works and what your audience is

Starting point is 00:09:10 resonating with. Another great thing is don't be afraid, small or large brand, to go on Instagram stories and just say, what type of content do you guys want to see? Or have polls saying, do you like educational content, humor content? What is bringing you value from following us? And then really lean into that. And as you grow, make sure to do those polls and question boxes once a quarter or once a year, whatever makes sense for you. But that way, you continue to evolve with your audience and provide a lot of value to them through what they're actually asking for and looking for.

Starting point is 00:09:43 Yeah, such a great idea to actually tap into the audience that's currently following you and like asking them, you know, like why they actually follow you. I've seen a lot of brands do a really good job with this. Even just like tapping into, you know, I think a food brand just posted recently, like what flavor do you want to see next for us? It kind of goes beyond even social media strategy and kind of like allowing the consumer or the follower to have a say in the type of content you're putting out

Starting point is 00:10:09 or the type of product that you're coming out with is always going to resonate really well with a consumer because people love that personalization aspect. They love feeling like they're heard by the brands that they love and follow. So I think that's an amazing idea. Question for you around like strategy pieces in accordance with that. What do you think is a good breakdown of like, say your audience is asking for more educational

Starting point is 00:10:39 content or they like the memes or whatever, how would you kind of take the data from what they're telling you and then put it into a strategy? So say you went back and you already asked yourself, you know, who are we as a brand? What are the people asking for? What is the next step there of like actually implementing a strategy around that? We'd just love to hear your thoughts. Yeah. I think one thing I've seen across almost every brand that I've worked on is the humor slash memer trending content is almost always going to perform the best on your channel. However, it's so important to make sure you're still providing value in other ways, whether that's product information, whether it's a general

Starting point is 00:11:23 category, education, et cetera. I think something that a lot of people get lost on is they just want to hop on a trend and they don't think about how it makes sense for the brand and what's the message that they're trying to send through to the end customer. And so I think that's something that's really important is just making sure that you zoom out and get multiple eyes on things before you start posting and just continuously test and learn. But I do love using a lot of social media tools. I think the platforms themselves are great. And if you can't afford to use another tool, those are totally fine. But I've worked with a variety

Starting point is 00:11:58 of different tools like Amplify and Sprinkler and Sprout. And I think so many of those are great for social listening. And that's how you can really use some of those key listening pieces to create a strategy. Like how are people talking about your brand? What's the takeaway that they are currently having from your brand? And do you want that to change or evolve? Or are you really happy with the messaging that they're receiving right now? Oh, that's so good. I love that you call out those tools because a lot of people will come to us if they're new in their social media career and they're like, I don't even know how to, you know, find those insights or like how to go deeper into the analytics and things like that. So we always recommend tools like that. I think two of them that you mentioned I have used in the past and they're really great. So we'll link out to that in the show notes as well. So people have a reference point of tools that they can use, but I want to also. One more tool. I just have to sneak it in there. I did a

Starting point is 00:12:56 trial for it a couple of years ago, I think, but I found it to be really easy to use if maybe you haven't used a tool in the past and you're looking to start. I think Dash Hudson has one of the simplest, easiest to use tools on the market right now. And I think that that's a great, great starting point. And there's so many insights you can get from it. Yes. Big, big fan of Dash Hudson. I know at least one of their employees listens to the show. So I wonder if they will be listening and giving us a shout out, but shout out to them if they are listening. One thing I wanted to touch on too, how can brands successfully drive community engagement on social? I mean, that's a big

Starting point is 00:13:36 factor. It's not just about, you know, spreading awareness. You really want to engage with your community. So do you have any kind of specific examples that you can share from your current role or roles past where community engagement was at the focus? Definitely. I think the number one thing is to take the brand's ego out of it and think about what those consumers will truly value because long term it will lead to sales and brand growth, et cetera, but you have to make sure they're so happy and stay loyal first. And so one example is on Czech cereal. I used to work on that account. It's under the General Mills franchise

Starting point is 00:14:16 there, but I created a Facebook group and an Instagram page where different bakers and moms and aunts and sisters, and there was some men too, mostly women, but they could all come together and share recipes and give each other tips and tricks and their takeaways from each of those. And it was such a cool thing because the brand was able to engage with all of these members, but the members were also able to engage with each other and it created such a sense of loyalty for the brand. And it was so exciting. And I think it did drive some really great business implications on the backend, but it was something where the ego came out. We were not pushing buy check cereal, go to the store. Now it was really focused on creation and excitement around the recipes. Oh my gosh. That's so cool. I'm a huge fan of using, you know, Facebook groups,

Starting point is 00:15:06 LinkedIn groups, any kind of groups possible. Even Instagram now has the channels that you can join. And I don't know that you can, as a participant in those channels, actually like engage directly one-on-one with the brand and with other people. But in those channels, I know that the brand can kind of tailor their content to be a little more personal to the people that actually want to follow along with what they're doing within that channel. So I'm a huge fan of those type of avenues just because it goes beyond the traditional social media and it makes people again, feel heard and feel like they're a part of something that the brand is, you know, also a part of, which is incredible. So

Starting point is 00:15:46 love that point. Wanted to talk a little bit too about like sales and promotions. That's something that like a lot of brands will trip over. Like how do we promote things on social media when we have a sale coming up? But we don't want to sound like salesy or like pushy around the sale or promo. What is the social strategy around that type of content and how do you kind of keep the social audience engaged when posting that content versus some of that educational or fun content? What does that look like for you? Yeah, that's such a great question. I think that it really depends on what your company offerings are. For example, if you only have one product and you believe a lot of the people that follow you already own your one product, it's going to look very different in comparison to a clothing brand who has a new line coming out every season, etc. So if you have just one product, I would recommend definitely don't overdo it. I think that you can tease maybe a sales coming up in case someone wants to buy a product for a gifting opportunity or upgrade to your newest version, but I definitely wouldn't push it in

Starting point is 00:16:56 everyone's face because they might feel like they missed out if they already currently own your product. However, I think it is fun to reshare Instagram stories of people buying the product during the sale or taking advantage of it and welcoming them to that community. And on the flip side, if you are a brand that has a ton of different products and you have a sale coming up, I think it's a great way for you to position it as we're giving back to you guys. We want to give you a discount because you're our valued customers and we want to continue to grow with you. And I think you can really lean into some of the sales in that way to create trust and loyalty with your audience.

Starting point is 00:17:34 Oh, absolutely. And one of the brands that comes to mind that does a pretty good job with that is Daily Drills. If you're familiar with their brand, they are a clothing brand and they have drops. I think like every single week, we had the founders on our podcast last year. Um, but they are always having sales and always just like sending out text messages to their followers or like, um, in the channel with their followers on Instagram. Um, just letting them know that like, this is for you because you support us and we love you and we want to make sure that you are able to get your hands on, you know, the latest drop. And so that's why we're having the

Starting point is 00:18:11 sale or whatever it may be. So I definitely think that's a good strategy. Yeah. Oh, totally. One thing I'm curious about too, for brands using a membership model, it can be a little bit different than like brands that have new products all the time. How much do you think of their content should be focused on nurturing that existing community? You kind of alluded to that when you're talking about like sales and promotions versus attracting new customers. I think that's a really unique thing that we can look at. Yeah, that's another really great question and something a lot of people don't think

Starting point is 00:18:47 about until it's too late. And in my opinion, I think it's so important to nurture your current customers first. They have to be happy and loyal and satisfied before you start to go out and find new customers. And I think organic social media should really speak to your current customer base and your paid social media team should really speak to new customers. And I think organic social media should really speak to your current customer base and your paid social media team should really speak to new customers. I think that differentiation is really important to make sure each set of people is feeling seen, heard, valued, etc. Obviously, there's going to be a little bit of overlap from time to time, but I think at the end of the day, organic social media needs to speak to current customers and paid social media should be more focused on looking at new customers. And with a

Starting point is 00:19:29 membership model specifically, I think it's really important to highlight all the benefits that those current members are getting with their membership. I think it's really easy to get caught up in talking about the new trendy topic. For example, I love mouth tape content right now, like people who tape their mouths to go to sleep and how it's impacted them. And I think that's great. And it's a fun thing to talk about on social media. But you need to balance it with features that your current members are getting for the subscription that they're paying each month to make sure they feel valued as well. Yeah, I absolutely agree with that.

Starting point is 00:20:03 And I think, too, another way that you can even go beyond social with some of these things is utilizing like a text subscription for, you know, new customers or for existing customers where you're kind of tailoring that content directly to them or something like inspire that community of existing consumers or attract some new ones. So love that little tidbit there. Could you walk us through some of the innovative campaigns and creative partnerships that you've led and their results? We'd love to like dive in a little bit deeper to some of these campaigns. Yeah, definitely. I think the first one that comes to mind is I was actually working on Caribou Coffee's holiday campaign on social media. I'm a huge coffee lover. It's just such a ritual to me every morning when I wake up and to work on. And it was during holiday season. We got to lean into all the nostalgia of the different types of drinks, the excitement surrounding the holidays, how you can treat yourself when you're out gift shopping and looking for everyone else. But I think at the end of the day, what makes this campaign so special, it was so authentic and it wasn't sales focused, but it led to sales in the end. And I think the more authentically you can show up on social media, it'll impact every

Starting point is 00:21:28 area of your business. And we actually grew the account by over 200% in just six months. And we did that by hopping on TikTok trends that made sense for the brand and showing up authentic to that platform and not trying to push a brand commercial on the channel, which wouldn't have resonated with the members that were on that channel. Oh, that's such a, that's really fun to see a behind the scenes peek of that. Cause I'm sure that I saw some of that like content come up. Did you, while you were at Caribou or working with Caribou, did you ever work with Leah

Starting point is 00:22:01 Palmquist? That name sounds familiar. It totally, I listened to her episode on here. So maybe that's just why it sounds so familiar. But I worked on Caribou while I was at the agency, The Socialites. And a woman named Mackenzie was my close client contact. And I worked with her a lot. But there was multiple people from the marketing and brand side of Caribou that would hop in and out of different social conversations. Oh my gosh, so fun. I wonder if there's any overlap there that would be so fun to find out. I wonder if Leah's listening. She'll let us know. Well, this has been such a fun conversation. I

Starting point is 00:22:34 know we're like, like whipping through these questions because I just like had so many things I wanted to ask you. But one of the things that a lot of people love hearing on the show from like social media experts or experts in their field is where they see their industry heading in the back half, you know, of 2024 and into 2025. As we're already thinking about that, it's August. I know it feels like the holiday season and the new year is like so far away, but it's really not. Just curious to hear kind of predictions for the future of social media. Yeah, awesome question.

Starting point is 00:23:13 I think, number one, I want to speak to all the people earlier in their careers that might be a little nervous to speak up or like they don't know what the value that they could provide in a boardroom, et cetera. And I think social media is one of those rare fields where it's not like accounting, where the longer you work in it, the more you know, et cetera. Some of these Gen Z kids will know way more about what's happening on social media than the senior leaders at the company. And I think it's so important to be able to express your opinion in a really strategic way. And it can really be a great

Starting point is 00:23:46 growth tip for you and your career as well. But something that I've personally seen in 2024, and I think it's going to just continue to take off, is really lifting the curtain and showing way more behind the scenes content. I think employees are starting to show up a lot more on their brand social pages. And I think a lot of people are bringing the customer along in the journey much more than they ever have before, whether they're asking them, you know, what colors do you want to see in our next fall clothing range items? What do you want to see in our next shoot? Do you want us to add accessories? And I think just making sure your customers are really part of that journey will continue to unfold for the rest of 2024.

Starting point is 00:24:27 And then looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, I really think brands are going to have to work really hard to maintain trust with their audience. I think a huge conversation happening right now is the impact of AI with social media careers. I think it would be really easy to just have AI write all your social media captions or create all the concepts for you. And AI is a great tool and you can definitely lean on it in different aspects of your job. But I think it'll continuously show up to see who's the human side of the brand and what brands are just leveraging AI to do a quick fix and get content out.

Starting point is 00:25:02 I think it'll be really important to continue to hone in on your brand voice and how your brand shows up on social in order to have consistency and be really human first. Yeah. The human element is so important. We just did like an exercise, literally an hour or so before this recording with my team at work about like chat GPT, AI, all of that, and how we can utilize it in our day to day. And what I always say is like, it's definitely a tool and it's a helpful tool. But there's really no match for the human brain and like the human empathy that we can convey and different things. And so I just always excited to see where that leads in the future. So I love that you shared that. Agreed. It's changing times,

Starting point is 00:25:51 just got to keep up with them. Okay, well, we want to talk to we can't, you know, end this conversation without talking a little bit about career. So this is a question that we ask everybody that comes on the show. It's like one of our favorite questions in the world. I ask it when I'm at like actual happy hour. Um, and people are like, why are you asking me this? I don't want to talk about my career right now. Um, but what do you know now that you wish you knew a little bit earlier on in your career? Oh, I think it goes back to that point of like, every person has a unique value and you can learn something from anyone at your company and you can also be the teacher of anything. I think so many people earlier on in their careers struggle with confidence and I definitely have in the past and I probably still do or I know I still do today. There's definitely instances where you get a little bit nervous or wonder, am I doing this right?

Starting point is 00:26:44 Am I providing the value to the company that they expected me to bring? And I think the more you can work on the confidence piece and also to caveat that, the listening piece for feedback, it's so important. I think naturally so many people get defensive whenever they're given feedback. And the more you can learn to really listen to the feedback and approach it in a much more positive and constructive criticism way, I think that's so important too, because it'll just provide so much growth for you in the future. So good. And so encouraging about like, you know, you have a voice.

Starting point is 00:27:16 That's something that we talk about all the time. And that's why we like try to give a platform with the show to like people who are in the every day. Because, you know, we kind of saw that there were a lot of podcasts the show to like people who are in the everyday because you know we kind of saw that there were a lot of podcasts that talked to like VPs you know CMOs people who kind of made it in their careers and they have a lot of really great insights but they're not in the nitty-gritty day-to-day and so I think it's just another piece of you know know, encouragement that, you know, you are where you are for a reason, and it doesn't matter your age or your position or your title, you have a voice and you have a lot of really great insights. Speaking of like you have just shared so many today. And so I know a

Starting point is 00:27:58 lot of our followers are going to want to know where they can find you follow along with that you're doing follow along with the brand. So where can everybody do that online? Yes. My personal social media is Catherine Elise Creative. I have all sorts of different content on there. I like to consider myself the guinea pig that I'll test out the trends and see how they perform and then maybe bring some back to a brand. And my LinkedIn is Catherine and my last name is Kama, K-A-U-M-A. And anyone listening, I'm a really big book nerd, whether it's a business book or a rom-com or honestly anything in between, please send me, just DM me a book recommendation. I would love it so much. And I'd love to chat and to anyone about anything book related. Oh my gosh, that's incredible. Not to

Starting point is 00:28:46 put you on the spot, but do you have like a favorite current book or what are you currently reading? I'm currently reading a book called The Brand Gap. And that's actually where a lot of that who, what, why that I spoke to earlier came in. It's really about brand marketing and bridging the gap between the analytical side and the creative side. It's really good. It's a super short read. It's very to the point. I love that. And then my personal book that I'm reading is I just finished.

Starting point is 00:29:13 It was called The Summer of 69 by Ellen Hildebrand. She writes a lot of books based in Nantucket and Cape Cod. And I just got back from visiting there. So I've been diving into all of her books. Oh my gosh, that's incredible. I'm like dying to go over there. Like the Northeast is some place that I like really want to explore. But I just looked up the brand Gap. I will be ordering that on Amazon in a moment. But have you heard of Unreasonable Hospitality? It's like a book, it has a yellow cover. Highly recommend. I always, if somebody loves books, I'm always like

Starting point is 00:29:47 that book you have to read. It's so good. Look that up. Yeah, absolutely. But we'll put everything that we chatted about and where to find you and the book recommendations, everything in this show notes so that everybody can find it and use it how they may. One thing too, I wanted to let everyone know where they can follow along with the brand with Aura. We are at Aura Ring. We are on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all the things. I think we've done a really good job on TikTok in the last year. And it's just such a fun and happy place to be right now. And I love that so much. I think, you know, some other channels sometimes can get a little more polished and TikTok is really the place to have fun and explore and just see what's working on social. So give us

Starting point is 00:30:35 a follow. So cool. I will definitely be following. I don't think I've seen your TikTok yet, so I'm excited to dive in, but thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us. This is such a good conversation. I know there's a lot of like takeaways, a lot of nuggets that people will love and hopefully people were taking notes because we covered a lot. Yes, definitely. I appreciate you giving me the platform to do this. I was very excited. This is my first podcast I've ever done. And if you can't tell, I love talking and connecting with people. So it's been really fun. Oh my gosh. Amazing. You should do more podcasts. I should just let me know.

Starting point is 00:31:11 Thank you, Catherine. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this week's episode. We hoped you loved it as much as we did. If you enjoyed the conversation, we'd love to get your feedback on's episode. We hoped you loved it as much as we did. If you enjoyed the conversation, we'd love to get your feedback on the episode. Head to the review section of your favorite podcast app and let us know what you thought. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.

Marketing Happy Hour - Driving Meaningful Brand Engagement on Social Media | Katherine Kauma, Social Strategist

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