PPB April 2020

FIVE MINUTES WITH Britney Godsey Chief Sales Marketing Officer, Gold Bond Mixing Business With APersonal Flair Britney Godsey, chief sales marketing officer for Gold Bond, uses Instagram to market her company’s products and services, while adding a personal—and tasteful—touch. Brittany Godsey, who was named a PPB Rising Star in 2018, uses her Instagram platform to market the services and products of supplier Gold Bond, while adding her own personal spin. Godsey shares tips and best practices for those new to the industry or for those new to using social media for business-related purposes, as well as how to best construct and target posts to garner the greatest return. PPB What is your Instagram strategy and how are you using this to engage members and clients in the promotional products industry? Godsey My strategy is to offer ideas and services to help people succeed and grow their business. This can mean showing videos of ideas that we’ve seen be successful or services that can aid in meeting the demands of your clients. If you’re a distributor who struggles with crafting great- quality ideas that your clients haven’t seen before or if you don’t know where to go to get exactly what they need, then that’s why I created my gram— for you. Two examples are: 1 My most recent video is an interview with a small- business owner, asking him what he wants out of a promotional distributor to help him grow his business and meet his objectives. 2 I have also done a video that shows case studies with ways Gold Bond products have been great fits for things like customer appreciation, onboarding, etc. I’ve also posted a video about the free rush services that are available at Gold Bond. If you’re a distributor who is constantly getting rush requests from your clients, then this service is great for you to know about so that you can go out and capture more of the market demand. PPB You also create posts that show Gold Bond products in use in everyday situations. Tell us more about those. Godsey I travel with my three- in-one lanyard and often post [photos and videos] of me using it on my [Instagram] stories in the airport, at hotels, in the car and at home, because I do truly love it and use it as an everyday go-to. So, if I can use it this way, then it may spark ideas for others about ways their customers might also find this item helpful. PPB When it comes to social media best practices, in general, the lines are still fuzzy. What do you think is important to establish a presence on social media that is appropriate for business, while also incorporating your personality? Godsey I really struggled with this same question initially and must admit that I still do on occasion—especially when I’m testing new types of content to see how our audience may react. It gets a little scary sometimes to try new things because you don’t want to get too far away from people associating your page with your business. Or worse, turning them off to your content so they unfollow or disengage with you—a silent firing of sorts. Considering we have folks reading this who are fairly new to social or are contemplating jumping into social, here are my suggestions: • Don’t get caught up in the feeling that you have to post every day. I started like that and it was mentally taxing, and content is really tough to maintain at a quality level unless you’re dedicating a good amount of time to your social presence. I post two to three times a week, but try to make sure that what I’m posting aligns with the top two parts of my strategy. As you get more comfortable and more familiar, creating content will be easier for you and you’ll have secured a base of folks interested in what you’re putting out there. Don’t overthink it. Everyone has to start somewhere. • I agree that there is a certain level of importance in showing off your personality and authenticity. In the beginning, I posted strictly business content 70 | APRIL 2020 | THINK