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Katya Allison

Director of Marketing
Content at GRIN

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How to Use Human Connection for Audience Engagement

In this episode:

Kate Bradley Chernis

CEO of Lately

Kate Bradley Chernis is the Founder & CEO of Lately, which uses AI to automatically transform longform content like blogs, podcasts and videos into dozens of “smart” social posts it learns will yield the highest engagement from your audience. As a former marketing agency owner, Kate initially created the idea for Lately out of spreadsheets for then-client, Walmart, and got them a 130% ROI, year-over-year for three years. Prior to founding Lately, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise.

How to Use Human Connection for Audience Engagement kate bradley lately influencer marketing podcast

Full episode details

Selling Is Always Social

“So it’s so easy, and it’s the same no matter what your industry is or how big or small your company is, and that is human connection. The number one cause for loss of sales is lack of customer trust, believe it or not, right? And trust comes from that connection. You like people; you believe them. So that’s why people are like, ‘Oh, social selling, it’s this new thing’…selling has always been social if you’re any good at it.” – Kate Bradley Chernis from Lately

Social media has only grown during the pandemic. However, there is a stronger push towards incorporating human connections as people try to find ways to relate over different platforms while in-person options are not as easily accessible. With this, social media marketing trends have shifted towards organic traffic and away from paid ads. This shift is due to the customer wanting to see themself in the product. Customers want to connect with the seller on an emotional level. It is now about incorporating personality in every post across platforms and content. So how is this accomplished? 

Quick Breakdown of Our GRIN Gets Real Episode #14

In this week’s episode, Katya Allison of GRIN sits down with Kate Bradley Chernis, the Founder and CEO of Lately to discuss the use of human connection for audience engagement across platforms. Kate used to be a Rock’n’Roll Radio DJ with 20 Million listeners tuning in each day. She discusses the secret sauce she used to turn listeners into fans, the power of silence, talking in a radio voice, and how the goal is to get the listener’s attention while also earning their trust. 

Kate explains how she took what she learned in radio and applied it to get Walmart a 130% ROI. This success led to the creation of Lately. Lately uses AI to transform long-form content into social posts that are reviewed by the AI to determine which content listeners will be most likely to respond to. Tune in to discover the magical equation of how AI plus humans is the equivalent of 1+1=3. 

When it comes to social media, Kate explains that there is a three-voice trifecta of video, audio, and writing that, when used together and correctly can make all the difference. Kate and Katya break down the importance of determining your objective and not burying the lead when trying to get the point across. It’s about allowing your audience to hear the emotion in the voice you are using no matter the platform. 

Kate addresses many additional topics such as: 

  • Why emojis are necessary but can be lazy.
  • How hashtags come into play, not just in finding what’s trending, but in how they can be used to infuse some personality into your social media marketing plan.
  • What legacy content is and how it can be a helpful way to make your content work for you in the long run.
  • The benefit of LinkedIn’s new policy of giving posted content a longer tail and how this helps with legacy content.
  • The importance of small businesses building up their marketing team first and quickly.
  • The need for viewers to see or hear content 12 to 14 times before the message sinks in and for customer engagement to occur. 

Kate gives her recommendations on how to maximize this engagement and the importance of figuring out where your audience is and hiring marketers as your salespeople. Whether your customer base is mainly found on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram, a small brand must develop a marketing plan that works for them. 

Katya makes a point to ask about slow and steady organic growth versus traditional paid content and Kate specifies that “…organic is making listeners into fans or customers into evangelists.” To hear how you can focus on organic growth and for access to all the details and tips that Kate brings, tune into the full episode of the GRIN Gets Real podcast now. You will even hear Kate’s 2021 predictions for social media marketing and a potential mindset shift towards taking risks in social media.

Quotes from the episode

How to Use Human Connection for Audience Engagement 1

“We’re big fans…of humans and AI together. So not just the AI or automation on its own, right, so we insist that the customer enhances the AI with their human voice.” 
 
 
“The first thing is, think about what your objective is. So for any email, text, social media post, what is the point of it? It’s not just to tell people what you’re having for lunch. With a social post, there’s only two, (possible objectives) it’s click or reshare. That’s it. When you’re smaller, it’s much harder to capitalize on a click. But a reshare is a lot easier.”
 
 
“…the hardest thing that all companies struggle with is marketing. One of the number one reasons that, especially startups, fail is that they don’t know how to do marketing, They can’t do lead gen, and they think of it as an afterthought…marketing is actually the most important, it’s the most important aspect of any business.”  

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