We were lucky to catch up with Katie Hinderer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Katie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

As a social media strategist, a few things stand out to me as the biggest trends we are seeing when it comes to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc…

One: Over the last year we have seen a move away from the highly curated feeds with stunning graphics and hours of editing. More and more people are going back to the basics – to simple edits, app-generated captions, and a less polished look. That’s good news for small business owners who don’t have the time or the resources to be creating content that takes hours and has an incredibly short shelf life.

Two: It’s no surprised that video is where it’s at these days. With the popularity of TikTok, other apps had to hustle to catch up. As a result, social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube have prioritized brief video content through the introduction of Reels and Shorts, respectively. This focus on video is not going away. Static posts still have a role to play in a company’s social media strategy, but it needs to be much more intentional than it used to be. For our clients, we emphasize video content, especially since it provides Reach far beyond what an static post can. Last year, we helped a new client (with less that 250 followers) lean into video content. They had a Reel that went viral with over 87,000 views, gaining them nearly 2,000 followers in just a few weeks. The other benefit of video content is that it tends to have a longer shelf life than static posts. A Reel can go viral weeks after it was posted, whereas an image post is pretty much over when the next post is shared.

Three: We’re seeing more and more companies focusing on their engagement and reach numbers over their follower count – FINALLY! Follower count is a vanity metric that really says very little about your account, and yet people have been obsessed with increasing this number. But more followers does not equate to more sales! For years, we’ve been preaching this to our clients and on our social media, and now we’re seeing this echoed by others in the industry and even top executives of these social media platforms. Adam Mosseri, the head if Instagram, recently posted about just this thing telling content creators to focus more of their efforts on engagement than follower count!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m the founder of Rosebud Social, a company that provides social media marketing for mission-minded brands. The company started in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, although I didn’t get my first real client until the Spring of 2021. From there the company has grown to the point where I now have three full-time employees and a number of contractors working with us.

I wasn’t always into social media and organic marketing. In fact, I majored in journalism at Marquette University and ended up working for years as a journalist in the commercial real estate industry. At one point, while writing about endless office deals and new construction projects, an editor asked me to be less creative in my writing. As a creative soul this was like a dagger to my heart. But they were paying the bills, so I got less creative and channeled that side of me into blogging.

At the time outfit of the day blogging was just becoming popular, so I started my own OOTD blog to chronicle what I wore everyday. As the blog grew, I hopped on different social media platforms to promote it and ended up getting really into Instagram and Facebook. Eventually blogging took a back seat to content creation on social media platforms and one day I found myself, unintentionally, working as a full-time Instagram influencer.

When the pandemic hit and influencer work began to dry up, I pivoted and decided to use my social media knowledge to help other small businesses navigate this often confusing world. That is when Rosebud Social began!

When it comes to online communications we provide a wide array of help for small business owners. The majority of our clients hand their social media off to my team and allow us to run it for them. We take it off their plate so they can focus on other, more mission-critical tasks in their business. Others just need a little support and coaching. We help them with one-on-one coaching, pre-written captions, social media audits, etc…

This year, to address the needs of small business owners who don’t have the money to hire my team, we launched The Social Circle – an affordable membership program that provides monthly caption templates, online support, or just $37 a month small business owners can get the support they need to show up authentically online without needing to think too much about it! We’re really excited about this new offering.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s your business, so you have to do it all yourself! That was the ‘lesson’ I had to unlearn and it was a painful process.

When I started my business, like most small business owners, it was just me. Me wearing all the hats, me running aspect of the business. Me creating content, pitching new clients, sending invoices, drafting proposals, marketing the business. I was the face that all the clients knew. I was the one they agreed to work with. And since I had grown up in a family of super capable people who often achieved more than the others in the office or work place, I assumed I needed to keep doing it all, even as the business grew.

When I brought on my first employee, I remained client facing. I was the one still doing all the posting. The employee was helping me with some of the content creation but I went through everything with a fine toothed comb – in the end hiring that first employee added more to my plate than it took off. It eventually became so overwhelming that I was constantly getting migraines that would have me in bed for days – forcing me to rest but stressing me out further.

Finally, one day I sat down and made a list of all the things I was doing. It was a LOT! I then went through and added a star next to the items only I could legitimately do. The list was shockingly short. So I started off loading these non-essential items to others. I gave my employee more responsibility and now, three years later, she is my Creative Director and best account manager. I hired a virtual assistant who could take all the small but essential tasks off my plate, like invoicing.

Still to this day when i find myself becoming overwhelmed with the amount on my plate, I write down everything I’m doing and go through the process again of identifying what is essential for me and what could be given to someone else. This practice has been one of the biggest game changers for my business success.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I’m a huge fan of business and personal development books, and many of them have changed the way I look at things and the way I run my business. Here are just a few:

Extreme Ownership by by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. The whole book is amazing but there is one line that stood out to me, that I use constantly “No bad teams, just bad leaders.” This concept has been especially helpful when I find myself frustrated with a member of the team. My first reaction is to lash out or demand answers, but then I think of this line and ask myself how did I fail as a leader that kept them from performing at their best? Often it’s simply a matter of me not communicating as clearly as needed.

Essentialism by Greg Mckeown. I re-read this book almost every year, and gift it to other entrepreneurs all the time! Why? Because it really helps you focus on what is absolutely essential to your business and what is just fluff that can be eliminated or avoided. It’s a great book for life too.

10x Is Easier than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less by Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan. This book!! After reading it at the end of 2023 I made some difficult but great business decisions. I eliminated some of the smaller clients we had taken on, as well as some of the more difficult ones, and began to focus instead on larger clients that would help us hit our business goals faster. For anyone truly looking to grow their business in a substantial way, this book is the blueprint.

Atomic Habits by James Clear. The small, actionable nuggets of wisdom in this book changed a lot of the way I look at my day and the way I go about creating new, meaningful habits. The concept of habit stacking is one of my favorite lessons from this book. Basically, to create a new habit stack it on top of a habit you already have. You do this with a hundred things already in your day, but now you can be intentional with how you go about it.

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. This is the book that got me into reading personal development titles! For those of us who struggle with failure, mistakes, and not looking perfect all the time, this book is pure gold. It’s changed the way I show up in the world, and changed the way I interact with my team.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rosebudsocial.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosebudsocial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-hinderer-a068873/
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reimagine-social-media/id1670761577

Image Credits

Maggie Eckburg