98. It’s Not Just for Kids Anymore: How to Leverage Social Media to Build Your Laundromat Business with Brittany Centers

00;00;00;04 – 00;00;28;22
Jordan
Hey, what’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Laundromat Resource Podcast. This is Show 98. And I pumped you here today because today we have on a repeat guest Britney Centers from Center Social who’s come in to tell us how to get more business using social media. And this is just such a great, great way to connect with your community, to gain new customers and to communicate with existing customers.

00;00;28;22 – 00;00;51;03
Jordan
And she’s got a lot of really, really great tips in today’s episode. So if you own a laundromat already, we can all up our social media game. If you are looking to buy your first laundromat. This is also a great, great episode for you because once you have your laundromat business, you are going to want to engage on social media.

00;00;51;03 – 00;01;17;21
Jordan
It’s 2022. You got to be a part of what’s going on in the online world. And and Britney’s got some great tips for you on how to do it. Now. I want to jump into it with her in a second, but real quick, huge welcome to all the new and pro members over at the Laundromat Resource. Com. The forums have been booming over there so if you haven’t gone to a lot of my resource dot com slash forums, you’ve got to get over there.

00;01;17;21 – 00;01;39;21
Jordan
Go ask a question and go answer a question because there’s a lot of really great conversations happening over there. They’ve been super busy lately and I love seeing that. I love seeing the community help each other succeed in this business, find that financial freedom, achieve your goals when we’re helping each other, we’re all doing we’re all doing better.

00;01;40;04 – 00;02;02;09
Jordan
So that’s a lot of my resources dot com slash forums that link and all the links in today’s episode which there’s quite a few actually will be at laundromat resource dot com slash show 98. If you’re on YouTube they’ll all be down below in the description also and also make sure you subscribe over there on YouTube because we have got great information coming out all the time.

00;02;03;01 – 00;02;26;19
Jordan
Okay. Real quick, I want to do our fast lane and fast lane or fast is it fast lane? Yeah, fast lane. Is it fast track. Fast track man. I can’t remember the name of the segment anyways. This. Yeah, I think it’s fast track. We want to put you on the fast track to success. We want to show you how a lot of resources can help you get there.

00;02;26;19 – 00;03;10;08
Jordan
Get on that fast track. Today’s fast track is super easy, super relevant to the episode Center Social, which Britney Center started, is a partner with Laundromat Resource and they have offered a pro perk that exceeds the value of the investment of the pro membership. So if you’re thinking about getting Britney or center social to help you manage your social media, it’s a no brainer to go over to laundromat resources dot com slash pro and join that community because you’re going to save more money once you jump on board with center social, then you will invest in that pro community plus you get access to all the other partner discounts and all of the other great

00;03;10;08 – 00;03;36;06
Jordan
information, resources, tools, all that stuff that you get a lot of right resource pro. So that’s at lot of my resource dot com slash pro and that is your fast track fast track fresh fast track. I have to go back to all previous times. Didn’t look that up. That’s your tip for today and it’s super easy one let’s jump video with Britney centers and get social with her.

00;03;36;06 – 00;03;54;03
Jordan
And it starts off a little bit like an animal podcast, but stick with it because we’re going to get into the social media and laundromat business side of things before we have a little fun with animals. All right. All right. Sounds great. And we’ll see you on the other side as I close this thing out. Hey, Britney, how’s it going?

00;03;54;25 – 00;03;56;13
Brittany Centers
It’s going well. How are you, Jordan?

00;03;57;13 – 00;04;21;09
Jordan
I’m good. It has been a social media eternity since we have talked because, you know, everything’s changed so bad. Some social media over giggling because it’s like the third time we’ve done this because of technical difficulties. But having talked to you in a little while, social media is changing like crazy. We both thought it would be awesome to do a little update on what’s going on with social media and how we can use it to benefit our businesses.

00;04;21;22 – 00;04;24;27
Jordan
But first, what’s been going on with you? What’s new?

00;04;26;01 – 00;04;51;20
Brittany Centers
Well, yesterday we rescued the dog. Someone was inconsiderate enough to drop off the puppies and they were literally in the middle of the road. So we took it off. And thankfully, within hours we found homes for four of them, which means that we kept one. So now we have a new puppy.

00;04;52;24 – 00;04;54;03
Jordan
Wow. What kind of dog is it?

00;04;55;16 – 00;04;58;09
Brittany Centers
It’s a great premise mixed with something.

00;04;59;23 – 00;05;09;23
Jordan
I mean, it sounds big. Is it big? It’s the puppy, right? Yes. Is. How like how big of a puppy is it?

00;05;10;10 – 00;05;19;23
Brittany Centers
She’s pretty small. Okay. Her name’s Honey, but we actually have a great Pyrenees adult dog, and he’s about £110.

00;05;20;07 – 00;05;24;09
Jordan
Well, you already have one, but yours had nothing to do with this one, is that.

00;05;25;09 – 00;05;28;25
Brittany Centers
No, it was actually, like 30 minutes away from here where they were.

00;05;29;15 – 00;05;52;27
Jordan
Okay. Okay. And nobody in the house calls anyone else, honey, because that could get confusing. Okay, so a new puppy in the family, a new honey. How cute. That’s awesome. Well, I mean, listen, I got to ask you, because it looks like there’s a jungle behind you or something like that. What is going on in the background there?

00;05;54;10 – 00;06;12;08
Brittany Centers
I’m. So those are chameleons. We actually have a chameleon breeding business. And those are chameleons in the background. They all have, you know, real lives, plants and plant lights and all that stuff. Most of them are from California, actually.

00;06;12;26 – 00;06;24;25
Jordan
Oh, you’re welcome. You’re welcome. We we do it. We can spread the chameleon love around. Yeah, I don’t see any chameleons there at all, but I guess maybe that’s the point of the chameleon.

00;06;24;28 – 00;06;26;15
Brittany Centers
Just exactly the point. Okay.

00;06;27;06 – 00;06;38;10
Jordan
Yeah, that’s pretty cool. And I mean, we’ve chatted before. I didn’t I had no idea the extent of what was going on reptile wise over there. But I know you have other reptiles, too, right?

00;06;38;26 – 00;06;52;17
Brittany Centers
Yeah, we we do have tortoises, bearded dragons to little snakes, which are not my favorite. My husband was raised with snakes, so those are kind of his thing.

00;06;53;11 – 00;07;14;08
Jordan
Nice. Well, I have one giant 100 plus pound tortoise and a bunch of, like, regular lizards in the backyard that we see all over all over the place. So, yeah, that’s the extent of my, uh, you know, reptile ness over here. That’s all I could get my wife to let me have really. And I had to get that tortoise before.

00;07;14;08 – 00;07;15;11
Jordan
Before we got married, so.

00;07;17;09 – 00;07;18;08
Brittany Centers
So how long have you had it?

00;07;18;20 – 00;07;22;22
Jordan
I’ve had it like 16, 17 years now.

00;07;23;01 – 00;07;24;00
Brittany Centers
Wow, that’s.

00;07;24;00 – 00;07;25;06
Jordan
Awesome. Yeah.

00;07;25;27 – 00;07;41;11
Brittany Centers
I have three sons, and the oldest one is really obsessed with reptiles. So that’s where, you know, also actually my best friend for his third birthday, which means getting rid of the six, got him a bearded dragon. And then it was like we went down the rabbit hole after that.

00;07;41;16 – 00;07;57;29
Jordan
No, you went way down the rabbit hole. I’m looking behind you right now. You’re you’re deep into that rabbit hole there. You might not come out. I don’t know. Yeah. All right. Well, let’s talk social media, because, I mean, you know, that’s why we’re here. Other I don’t know, I kind of be down to just from now on.

00;07;57;29 – 00;08;23;23
Jordan
A lot of my resource podcast is about puppies and reptiles. I said, that’d be fine with me too. But I guess, you know, we should probably talk social media and business here because, you know, it’s it’s 2022 and from now and moving forward, like it’s just imperative that we have at least some sort of basic understanding of what’s going on, on social media and how we can use it to help us grow our businesses.

00;08;23;23 – 00;08;45;08
Jordan
That’s what it’s all about. Right. And so let’s I mean, can we just can we start with maybe the the scariest one or the one that I think is least understood by all of us old fogies here? Tick tock. What what can you guys do? It’s just a little bit. What is tick tock? And, you know, how can we use it as businesses?

00;08;46;02 – 00;09;15;22
Brittany Centers
All right. So Tick Tock is a video platform that, as we all know, started it was the perfect time for a platform, social media platform to be released. And right when, you know, COVID happened. And so it’s a video platform where you film depending on what you’re doing, seconds to minute video. And it’s very been, well and it is very beneficial for small businesses.

00;09;15;22 – 00;09;36;06
Brittany Centers
But also, I want to address the fact that it’s very controversial right now. We saw it recently that it was going to get banned again. You know, a couple of years ago, there was a rumor that it was going to get banned, but they had until July eight or, yes, July eight to make the decision of whether TikTok was going to get banned.

00;09;36;06 – 00;10;03;03
Brittany Centers
And nobody’s ever said anything. So at that point, we’re going on that it’s going to stick around. And a lot of people don’t really like TikTok, but, you know, you have to address how it’s going to help businesses. And, you know, at this point it is we’re just assuming that it’s here to stay. So customers on social media, I mean, everyone knows that your customers are on social media every day, many hours a day.

00;10;03;27 – 00;10;27;01
Brittany Centers
But for Facebook, the average customer is on 35 minutes a day. Instagram is 28 minutes a day and tick tock is 80 minutes a day. So that’s how big of a difference. And it is. And one of the greatest things about TikTok is that it’s the fastest growing platform for all ages, and that is that they’re 50 plus year olds already on TikTok.

00;10;27;01 – 00;10;34;01
Brittany Centers
And we’re from the very beginning and let’s rewind it back to when Facebook first started and.

00;10;34;06 – 00;10;46;18
Jordan
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let’s let’s rewind it back a little further. When MySpace, the real O.G. social media started, we’re going to start somewhere. Go ahead. Sorry.

00;10;47;02 – 00;10;55;10
Brittany Centers
Yeah. Yeah. So MySpace was the real O.G. of social media. I was actually world school when MySpace came out.

00;10;55;18 – 00;10;59;09
Jordan
Okay, well, reverse. Are old fogies over here?

00;11;00;23 – 00;11;10;23
Brittany Centers
Yeah. Yeah. And I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever. And now look back compared to 2020 to how everything has changed.

00;11;10;23 – 00;11;12;05
Jordan
Do you have a MySpace, by the way?

00;11;12;28 – 00;11;13;18
Brittany Centers
Yeah, I did.

00;11;14;11 – 00;11;17;19
Jordan
I’m going to look it up. If I can find it. I’m going to link to it in the show notes.

00;11;19;10 – 00;11;21;21
Brittany Centers
Has got to be Britney McKnight.

00;11;22;01 – 00;11;23;26
Jordan
Mic night. Okay. I’m going to leave it at.

00;11;24;16 – 00;11;49;03
Brittany Centers
Yeah but so you know 65% of users on TikTok are 20 to 49 years old and then 11% are 50 plus. So it’s been the fastest growing platform ever for older people. And when I say that, you know, like back in the day when Facebook first started and then adults would get on or kids would join Facebook and then their parents would get on it.

00;11;49;03 – 00;12;14;20
Brittany Centers
And then kids were like, okay, you know, I don’t want parents seeing everything I’m doing. So then I would go to Instagram or Snapchat or, you know, pick some platform. They went into it just trying to get away from their parents. But Tik Tok is the only one that’s ever switched the game for that. And so it started off with much older people being on Tik Tok I think probably the pandemic had something to do with that.

00;12;16;13 – 00;13;07;28
Brittany Centers
And fortunately, even though as upsetting as Tik Tok is for some people that don’t, the organic reach for Tik Tok is much higher than any other social media platform right now. You get 4.5 times more organic engagement, and when I say organic engagement, that means that you’re not running types of ads or spending any money. So you’re going to get 4.5 type times engagement on Tik Tok right now compared to any other network and small businesses that are selling actual items and are getting ten times more sales right now from Tik Tok, which, you know, in a wonderment world you’re not necessarily selling stuff online, pick up and delivery would count as like selling, but

00;13;07;28 – 00;13;11;16
Brittany Centers
you know, like a self-service laundromat, not necessarily selling online.

00;13;13;01 – 00;13;45;17
Jordan
Yeah, and I mean, this is kind of a pattern we’ve seen with some social media sites like Facebook, like Instagram, you know, where the organic reach is much higher in the beginning because these social media companies depend on engagement. They depend on interaction there. You know, it’s it’s cheaper to advertise on them. Content creators get paid less because they’re just trying to get the content out and make it addictive, which let’s face it, Tik Tok is like the cocaine of social media, right?

00;13;45;17 – 00;14;02;19
Jordan
Like once you had to take it off my phone because I had it on there for like a day, and then I was like, what happened to that day was like gone, right? Like, it’s hard to get off of it because it’s just they roll right into each other. Yeah. And yeah. But anyways, you know, and so we’ve seen that.

00;14;02;19 – 00;14;24;21
Jordan
We saw that with Facebook. Facebook, we saw that with Instagram where you get a lot of organic reach and then eventually that starts to fade away as it commercializes more. Well Tik tok it hasn’t commercialized more yet yet. As much as the other social media is, you’re getting a lot more organic reach people to reach people that way, which is really interesting.

00;14;25;05 – 00;14;46;18
Brittany Centers
Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s the same thing that happened originally with Facebook, Instagram, you know, originally with Facebook you did. And there wasn’t even an area for people to advertise, for businesses to ever get on Facebook. And it was just about getting those followers. So, I mean, you know, two years, three years, it’s going to be the same things take time and there will be another platform, this new that comes along.

00;14;46;18 – 00;15;21;01
Brittany Centers
And so they want you they want to gain all those followers, just organic followers. And then at that point, once they get to a certain point, that’s when they start asking for money, which sounds like crazy, but at the same time, that’s how you’re going to reach your potential customers. And one of the reasons why I want to talk about Tik talk first is that I want to lead and to realize what we’ll talk about in a second, which are very similar to it, which is very similar to Tik Tok and how the benefit of relies on Instagram and Facebook is going to help your business.

00;15;21;22 – 00;15;34;07
Jordan
Yeah, okay. But before we get into reels, I want to like okay, here’s, here’s the thing with Tik Tok, right? And like you’ve kind of mentioned, it’s controversial. Well, do you want to talk about why tiktok’s a little bit controversial or a little better?

00;15;34;18 – 00;16;12;22
Brittany Centers
Yeah, well, it’s a Chinese owned company. And if anyone knows anything about a Chinese company, is that pretty much the government owns them and that they if the Chinese government wants data or information, if it is a Chinese owned company, they don’t have an option. But to give that information. And that is one of the biggest things is that, you know, if you are a business on Facebook or you’re just a person on Facebook or on Tik Talk, I mean, so then the Chinese government does and can have access to anything for posting or any of your information.

00;16;12;22 – 00;16;40;15
Jordan
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So here’s here’s the thing, though. I’m, you know, we’re, you know, laundromat owners over here, I think very few probably laundromat owners. I know some are on Tik Tok and are utilizing and are getting business from it, but very few I would say relatively speaking, are utilizing Tik Tok. And a big part of that reason is because we don’t really understand how it’s going to translate to the bottom line.

00;16;40;15 – 00;17;03;22
Jordan
Right? Bottom line is the bottom line. So can you help me? I’m maybe I’m just the only one here, but can you help me and anybody else who needs to know, understand? How do we translate these very you know, and I think a tik tok videos I think of like crazy dancing and like, you know, all the pranks, all that stuff that sucked me in for an entire day.

00;17;05;03 – 00;17;09;27
Jordan
Yeah. How does how does that translate into the bottom line for us into sales?

00;17;10;19 – 00;17;30;15
Brittany Centers
Okay. Customers. So I’m going to break it down to three parts for my owners. I’m going to do self-service water, iPhone and pickup and delivery. And I’m going to use the first example. What I’m going to use is college kids. And, you know, I’m going to use I’m from Kentucky, so I’m going to use a school from Kentucky.

00;17;30;16 – 00;17;37;26
Brittany Centers
My the best one in my opinion, which is the University of Louisville, not the UK, can’t say that’s the one.

00;17;39;19 – 00;17;47;20
Jordan
And for everybody, let me just translate. So the University of Louisville or Louisville?

00;17;48;09 – 00;17;48;25
Brittany Centers
No.

00;17;48;26 – 00;17;51;18
Jordan
Lovell. Okay. I don’t even know what you’re saying right now.

00;17;51;26 – 00;17;52;14
Brittany Centers
Well.

00;17;52;22 – 00;18;06;14
Jordan
So you have something stuck in your. Let’s go ahead. Yes. You give us an example from, you know, the the third most popular college in.

00;18;06;14 – 00;18;33;24
Brittany Centers
So let’s say that you’re a laundromat owner in Louisville, Kentucky, and that you are wanting to start a program for college kids. Then you what’s one way that you’re going to reach those kids is that it’s going to be TikTok because they’re all of that demographic is on TikTok. And so there’s three different ways that you could reach them, depending on what you’re offering.

00;18;33;24 – 00;19;00;19
Brittany Centers
But say that you wanted to start a program about a semester of laundry. So I have some clients that are actually doing this where they pick up, they charge one flat price and then they pick up your entire laundry for an entire semester. One way to utilize TikTok for that avenue. It’s like there’s other companies that are doing like dorm mom and Tide.

00;19;01;01 – 00;19;31;01
Brittany Centers
It’s called Tide something. Sorry, I can’t remember, but they’re targeting colleges specifically and you could use Tik Tok to reach out by, you know, showing an overview of the campus, the clothes being picked up, wash clothes delivered and then like saving college kid time because I mean, you know, when you are in college, you have a little or maybe lots of free time, but you choose what you’re spending it on.

00;19;31;06 – 00;19;55;08
Brittany Centers
And most of them don’t want to spend it on wandering. And you use tik tok to target and to reach them. Because the thing about Tik Tok algorithm is that it shows things that you’re interested in within the past six months only. So if you have a college kid at your rental, then that’s they’re probably going to be interested in the University of Louisville.

00;19;55;15 – 00;19;59;05
Brittany Centers
And so it’s going to automatically target them without you spending a bunch of money.

00;20;00;22 – 00;20;28;21
Jordan
Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s great. And I mean, I think it’s a great example of how TikTok can drive business and an interesting also business model with the charging first semester’s worth of laundry, which, you know, some of you guys who are near and women guys and women who are near colleges, you know, something to consider, something to think about, something to work the math through on, to see if you can make that work, because it could be a really good customer base.

00;20;28;25 – 00;20;55;24
Brittany Centers
I mean, I really think it’s going to grow because, you know, even when I was in college like ten years ago, we lived in a foreign complexes called College Living Redefined, where we had our own bedrooms and that kind of stuff. But there was and like washing machines and dryers in order to maintain all the laundry for all the buildings.

00;20;56;04 – 00;21;06;09
Brittany Centers
So I think that it’s definitely something that is going to continue to grow for the long term world. But that’s you know, that’s just my opinion.

00;21;07;04 – 00;21;25;04
Jordan
Yeah, no, I think that’s great. I think it’s interesting model. Okay, well, let’s bring in I mean, so, you know, if you’re in a college town, that could be a great way to do it. But what if you’re just like a neighborhood kind of, you know, on the corner Laundromat? I mean, is TikTok still a good avenue for that laundromat?

00;21;25;05 – 00;21;29;26
Jordan
So like, how can we utilize that as just, you know, neighborhood laundromats?

00;21;30;11 – 00;22;05;03
Brittany Centers
Yes. So that’s one reason why I said previously that I was going to break it down into three categories. So like self-service and we were I talked about the ages on, you know, tick tock. So your age demographic is there pretty much and still self-service you would some you would walk through I want to show how clean your laundromat is and customers being happy obviously cooperation with them and the services that you offer and say there’s cameras, lights, you know, depending on what you’re wanting to promote at that time.

00;22;05;11 – 00;22;33;22
Brittany Centers
And then you add some sound and make it exciting and then post on social media or on TikTok. And that’s actually going to reach your putting your clients in your area. Washer I sold a TikTok example would be showing that the laundry being washed, folded and push saving time like we will do all this for you. All you have to do is drop it off and pick it up.

00;22;34;24 – 00;22;58;09
Brittany Centers
And once again, you know, your friend sounds and make it a little bit more exciting. And that’s one thing that everyone needs to understand with TikTok and Rules and pretty much all social media is that it’s not a formal like you’re not you’re not making a TV commercial anymore. No one really wants to see that. And that’s, you know, who really watches commercials very much.

00;22;58;09 – 00;23;22;01
Brittany Centers
It’s a real life like people want to see the stuff that’s really going on in real life that you’re showing. And that’s what they want to see. So it just they just want to see what you’re willing to. And so, like showing the wash your iPhone is exactly what happens. And that would target people in your area and then pickup and delivery.

00;23;22;01 – 00;23;48;09
Brittany Centers
It’s kind of the same thing you would show, like picking up someone’s laundry from their front porch, washing it, folding it, and at the same time going on this exciting sounds, music, even some of your employees dancing in the background while they’re doing it would make it a little better. And then dropping it off. And obviously this is just one example with TikTok or Reels, you have to have multiple videos all the time.

00;23;48;19 – 00;23;51;08
Brittany Centers
But this is just like one example that you can come up with.

00;23;52;10 – 00;24;03;14
Jordan
Yeah, I think just as you’re saying that, I was thinking, you know, I’m going to start now whenever I go visit a laundromat and go do a dance in people’s laundromats and tik take it for the laundromat resource tik tok account.

00;24;04;22 – 00;24;06;19
Brittany Centers
I would do that.

00;24;06;19 – 00;24;36;02
Jordan
It really high. I know. Yeah. And I mean genuinely like, you know, I don’t have a ticket. I don’t. Well, one question I have. Well, hold on, let me hold on. So, I mean, I love those ideas. I think that’s great. I think there’s there’s two angles to hit right when you are thinking about Tik Tok videos. So the, the, what you do is, is the one side of things you want to show people like you know, who you are, what you do, you know what they’re going to get, what your laundromat looks like.

00;24;36;02 – 00;25;06;25
Jordan
It’s clean. It’s not a zombie mat. You know, we come and pick up your laundry off the off the front porch, that kind of thing. Right. There’s, though, who you are and what you do as a business. And then there’s the, you know, what, what you get from using our services, right? So like if it’s pickup and delivery, you know, you can do tik tok videos of people doing whatever else, you know is, is way more exciting than laundry, which is nothing obviously.

00;25;07;08 – 00;25;29;28
Jordan
But you know, for some people, whatever else is way more exciting while they’re not doing their own, you know what I mean? Like so hit both of those angles as you’re creating any any social media content, really letting people know who you are, what you do, and then let people know how your services or your self-serve laundry can improve their lives.

00;25;29;28 – 00;25;52;18
Jordan
And you can do it in a lot of fun, creative ways and just, you know, in case anybody doesn’t know, you know, Tik Tok has a bunch of like a bunch, bunch of built in, you know, songs and sounds and stuff like that that you can just overlay on to videos makes it very easy. You’re not, you’re not doing a whole lot of video editing per se, like you’re not producing a commercial.

00;25;53;08 – 00;26;11;12
Jordan
You know, you might be splicing a couple of things together, but the audio is all there and it makes it simple, which I think is part of the reason that it went viral. Also, it’s a relatively simple video format to do because they’re short, they’re simple, they provide the audio most of the time and, you know, good to go.

00;26;12;13 – 00;26;38;16
Brittany Centers
Yeah, that’s exactly it. And that’s why the next thing that I want to talk about the rules, because, you know, do does anyone for 1/2 think that Facebook or Instagram is going to let Tik Tok actually overtake them? No, no. I mean, it may happen, but they’re going to go down trying and that’s exactly what it really is.

00;26;38;16 – 00;27;01;03
Brittany Centers
And so this is important for people that don’t want to be on Tik Tok or well, actually it’s just important for everybody. But this is a plus sign for people who don’t want to patronize Tik Tok. So reels and so when it’s called it should be called the Tik Tok of Facebook and Instagram if you know you want to really go with what it is.

00;27;01;25 – 00;27;32;22
Brittany Centers
But it’s 32nd to 32nd videos that you can add the filters, the special effects, the music they provide, all of the music for you. And so one of the most important things that you can be doing as a small business right now is using utilizing rules like. And the reason is, is that, you know, Facebook, Instagram, they want to take Tik Tok down in the whole scheme of the world and what’s when they do that.

00;27;32;22 – 00;27;56;27
Brittany Centers
So they created the whole rills, which is just like I mentioned, the tik tok, but they are pushing their algorithm so they have changed their entire algorithm to push the rules so that you’re going to get more organic reach, you’re going to reach more people, you’re going to reach more customers. So like and I’m going to bring it down a little bit more further for you.

00;27;57;05 – 00;28;36;06
Brittany Centers
So if you’re posting on your business page for your laundromat about point 7% of people are going to see that right now because of all the algorithm changes and but if you’re using reals then that increases substantially. So they’re pushing for businesses to use rules on social media. So and if you’re going to reach new people, not just your current customers, not people that are walking in your door, but people that have never seen or heard about your business but can walk in to your door.

00;28;37;26 – 00;29;07;01
Brittany Centers
And so there’s three ways that reals actually really work for your business, is that they grow your audience organically so you don’t have to I mean, always run ads truthfully on social media. Now, but it increases your organic reach without spending all that ad spend and then it builds the like know and trust factor with your customers. So they’re seeing like as we mentioned with TikTok, it’s not a commercial.

00;29;07;12 – 00;29;46;14
Brittany Centers
They’re they’re getting to see the real you. And I’m actually going to have Jordan link an example of the will for brothers real for the well LUCCHINELLI But we did it for the wash house of when they were remodeling one of their laundromats, one of the roles that we posted for them. And it’s literally and if you guys know like early Wilford, you’re going to laugh when you see it because it’s of Lupe using a sledge hammer and Lee taking a wall and that’s just for me to reiterate that it doesn’t have to be like a commercial, like it’s just real life.

00;29;46;14 – 00;30;25;17
Brittany Centers
Like they were demoing a laundry mat that they had just purchased and so that helped. And a lot of people were like, Well, how does that have to do anything with my laundry mat? But it shows your customers that you’re improving the place. You’re working hard to make sure that the environment they walk into is nice and clean and well-kept and it makes them trust you, like you, and feel like they know you, which is going to turn into a repeat customer and then the last things, the way that Rose really worked your business is to show off like your service.

00;30;25;27 – 00;30;50;04
Brittany Centers
So obviously if you’re showing great customer service, you have how great your laundromat is, then you’re going a zombie mat or a competitor down the road that isn’t nearly as nice as you. They’re not going to they’re not going to do that. And so that and so you’re going to target them organically and reach them and then create, as the wolves are brothers and say a lifelong customer.

00;30;51;18 – 00;31;16;27
Jordan
Yeah, yeah. Which is awesome. And reals are, are like you said, I mean, your, your engagement goes or your exposure goes way up, you know, when you’re creating reals as opposed to posts. In fact, I’ve seen recently over the last week or two where a lot of people are taking their static posts and converting them to video files to turn their static posts into real.

00;31;16;27 – 00;31;37;00
Jordan
So I see like a, you know, like a quote, a post quote. It just there’s no moving or anything, but they turn it into a video because they’re kind of game in the sense I’m sure they’ll shut that down eventually. But the kind of game in the system to get more, more reach out there with those reals because they are being pushed a lot, lot more.

00;31;37;00 – 00;31;45;07
Jordan
And if you look at your your feeds, you’re going to see 90 to 95% video and then the rest will be still.

00;31;45;25 – 00;32;07;17
Brittany Centers
Yes, yes, still post. I mean, I think they’ll always be around. But the reason why that the any type of movement or anything is because we have one gauge. And so. All right. Let’s say that Facebook allowed everyone to just post static post. Nowadays in the world that we live in, well, people will start opting us very quickly.

00;32;07;26 – 00;32;30;12
Brittany Centers
They don’t want to look at that. And so to compete to be the best social media platform out there, which is what they’re all doing, they want to make sure that the content is great and what people want to see. And just one of the reasons why the more likes you get, the more follows. The more part of that that you get, the more your post is seen because it’s considered good content and they want to be the best platform out there.

00;32;30;20 – 00;32;41;22
Brittany Centers
So, yes, that’s why a lot of people are using like motion graphics, motion text, all of that because it is a competition to get the most views and it works.

00;32;42;13 – 00;33;04;21
Jordan
Yeah, it yeah, it definitely works. Okay. So the question I have for you, this is like a legit question that’s going to apply to both reals and Tic TAC. And I don’t know that you’re going to have to answer this. I’m not sure there is an answer to this. But how how do you how does one how how would I how about this?

00;33;04;22 – 00;33;29;23
Jordan
How would I have a a TikTok account and and post reels for my business without getting sucked into Tik Tok? And really, because once you’re in the, you’re in their world, like it’s hard to get out of there, you know what I mean? Like the videos roll into each other and it’s just really hard to stop that, you know?

00;33;29;23 – 00;33;37;05
Jordan
And I think I just I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of people who you know, once once they pop, they can’t stop.

00;33;37;23 – 00;34;21;18
Brittany Centers
Yes. That is a very, very difficult answer because the trends change. So what like let’s just push away algorithms for a second. Okay. Let’s talk about trends like, you know, they’re pretty long trends and they change every week. Well, you have to be on top of that trend and to be utilizing it. So there’s no real way if you’re doing it yourself, to not get sucked in because, you know, it’s all about like you’re learning in order to promote your business, which it sounds like I’m telling you, go out there and watch Tik Tok and realize.

00;34;22;29 – 00;34;45;15
Jordan
I like the way you’re spinning this because you’re turning our addictions into an education. Really? And how long do you know? How long do we spend? We spent, you know, almost two decades or some of us, more than two decades going to school, going to college, all that stuff, learning when really all you need to be doing is watching Tik Tok and reels all day.

00;34;45;15 – 00;35;04;09
Brittany Centers
Yes. You know, it’s really kind of funny. My husband, before I write like it was like 130 which our podcast started to like our, my time and he starts laughing. I was like, we’re laughing at because now I’m like, I’m like getting in the zone, like trying to, you know, I’m going over my notes of what I want to say.

00;35;04;09 – 00;35;32;09
Brittany Centers
And I was like, Usually I’m just laughing because it popped up on my tik tok about rules and how important they are. And it’s a little scary in some ways because he spent like this morning listening to what I was going to go over today and somehow it’s now popping up on it’s Tik Tok and all that. So, so I mean, I do think that there is some power behind that and I don’t speak on that too much.

00;35;32;10 – 00;35;33;14
Brittany Centers
Doesn’t scare some people.

00;35;33;25 – 00;35;42;02
Jordan
Yeah. Listening. Turn off your Alexis Alexa, turn yourself off.

00;35;42;02 – 00;36;03;06
Brittany Centers
Okay, so I have to tell this. Just make everyone laugh. But I have a he just turned three and his brother has an Alexa in his room. Who is that’s turn six and he loves to listen to music. My husband’s a music teacher, so they get it honestly. And so guess this book where you push the book those animals and it tells you like this name of the animal in the sound.

00;36;03;18 – 00;36;25;18
Brittany Centers
And so I walked upstairs this morning and he pushed the button for a tone and and and said, Toad in line didn’t like the remote sound. And he goes, Alexa, that’s not a toad. It’s a frog. But it wasn’t. It is a kid’s book. But he’s heard his brother talk to Alexa so much.

00;36;25;18 – 00;36;34;26
Jordan
That’s really funny. And you know what he would know? Because I don’t know. Does reptile expert make you automatically an amphibian expert?

00;36;35;07 – 00;36;40;18
Brittany Centers
Well, we do have seven amphibians. Okay.

00;36;40;22 – 00;37;04;20
Jordan
So you’re in? Yeah, you’re in. Yes. Hilarious. That’s it. Yeah. My kids, like, try to swipe the TV a lot or, you know, that kind of thing, like, oh, gosh, what a world. What world? Okay. So I mean, we got reels, we’ve got tick tock. I mean, I think both of those scare people a lot. Right. And I like the message that you’re saying, hey, don’t worry so much about it being some kind of polished thing.

00;37;04;20 – 00;37;26;12
Jordan
Go grab like a fun trendy audio. Could be a song. It could be. There’s a lot of, like, spoken quotes that people turn into, like kind of mean type deals. Trends, I guess is the the video version of me. But, you know, go find those things and think how can how can this apply to, you know, to my business?

00;37;26;12 – 00;37;46;20
Jordan
How can I make this funny or engaging and show something about my business or show something about what the customers get from utilizing my business, that kind of thing, and just go try it. Like that’s that’s kind of the idea behind is you don’t have to kill yourself upfront to figure it all out, making sure it’s all perfect.

00;37;46;20 – 00;38;07;19
Jordan
Just go have some fun with it, try it out. And you know, like anything with business, the results with consistency. So if you can if you can be a little bit consistent about posting on Tik and posting a real a day or a couple of day or whatever, you you will see traction. You will see results there.

00;38;08;14 – 00;38;18;16
Brittany Centers
Yes. Because it’s the algorithm is purposely designed to reach new people within your area.

00;38;18;16 – 00;39;05;00
Jordan
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So, you know, it’s one thing I will say I don’t know if you have anything to say on this. One thing I will say is it’s difficult to it’s it’s a organic reals and organic Tik tok is for a laundromat specifically is can be difficult to track the effectiveness of those in my terms and maybe have something to say on that but you know it it’s hard to pinpoint you know I made this video about, you know, this quote video where I did a funny thing in it and that converted to three sales.

00;39;05;00 – 00;39;30;08
Jordan
Right. Like it’s hard to pinpoint that. But, you know, I I’ve seen, you know, both personally and through the marketing and stuff that that we do over here, that, you know, when laundromats are consistently posting on that, that they’re seen increased businesses. I mean, have you have you seen that happening?

00;39;30;08 – 00;39;59;03
Brittany Centers
Yes, absolutely. And so one of the biggest. Yes. So I always ask my customers, compare, you know last month’s business to this month and like keep growing looking and you should continue to see it grow. But at the same time, one of the biggest misconceptions with social media is that everybody wants like that number, like they want that number of like, okay, this is what this is what’s my name?

00;39;59;17 – 00;40;24;27
Brittany Centers
Grow, grow, grow. And what they don’t understand is that it’s an overall brand awareness. That’s what social media is. And with a is. And one of the best analogies that I have and I have so one, the last podcast that I did, I don’t remember much, but I mean, I’ve been saying this since I started doing marketing in 2014 is that look at Disney.

00;40;26;00 – 00;40;55;17
Brittany Centers
It doesn’t matter if you have children, but you have nieces, nephews, grandkids, cousins, friends, children. But even if you don’t have children, look at how many times a year you see something with the Disney logo on it, and that’s because they’re wanting to it. The more times that they can get their brand and bring your eyeballs, the more likely you are to make that decision, whether it’s for your kids or nieces, nephews, but for somebody.

00;40;55;29 – 00;41;21;24
Brittany Centers
And when you look at it like that, Disney is one of the biggest brands in the world. And they’re always advertising. They’re always marketing. Whether they now want you to to be a potential customer or not. And it’s the same way with social media and brand awareness is that, you know, you have the self-service people that are going out there looking for somewhere to do their clothes, wash your household and pick up a delivery.

00;41;21;24 – 00;41;42;06
Brittany Centers
They’re sometimes looking, you know, like, oh, hey, I would like the service. But a lot of times they don’t even know that it exists in their area. So you’re increasing that brand awareness and pushing your brand, and that’s going to get in front of their eyeballs, as I describe it, and then eventually turn into a customer and it’s like, Oh, hey, I could really use that.

00;41;43;24 – 00;42;08;18
Jordan
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I mean, I think that that is and that’s part of that consistency piece. Right? Like you don’t you don’t build up brand awareness. You don’t stay front of mind by posting sporadically and you know, and that kind of thing. So yeah, I think that’s awesome, awesome input. Well I want to chat about Facebook. I mean, Facebook still kind of the behemoth.

00;42;08;18 – 00;42;23;29
Jordan
I know they’ve kind of been losing some market share to some of the newer social media platforms itself, but they’re still kind of the of of the business. Is there a specific way we should be using Facebook these days for our business?

00;42;25;06 – 00;42;53;29
Brittany Centers
Yes. So you need to start with those things. You have to be using ads, ad spend and you know, I’m trying to not make this very complicated when I say this, but it is complicated is that there is now media business. And so in the world of social media that we live in right now to run ads, you actually have music business and you have to convert the page.

00;42;54;00 – 00;43;28;22
Brittany Centers
Some pages haven’t even officially converted yet. You get an alert page does like it’ll pop up and say there’s a new way like click open now. And so that’s when you know and it has to be on my computer in order to actually see that. And that’s how, you know, when it’s converted. But yes, so use my business suite, the analytics, the numbers, everything which you see, there’s ads that you can run on a business which you know that when I say matter, like that’s what Facebook is called now.

00;43;29;29 – 00;43;44;26
Brittany Centers
But yes, they’ve changed everything the way that you run ads, the way that you post it all changed. And so Facebook right now currently is about four different platforms combined.

00;43;44;26 – 00;43;45;08
Jordan
Yeah.

00;43;45;29 – 00;43;48;08
Brittany Centers
Yeah, I know it sounds all well.

00;43;48;15 – 00;44;04;10
Jordan
I mean, it gets it gets pretty overwhelming pretty fast. Right. And then, you know, there’s I’ve seen kind of more and more laundromats use in groups. I mean, are you seeing that? Is there opportunity in using groups?

00;44;04;24 – 00;44;26;09
Brittany Centers
Yes. So that’s also one of the big algorithm pushes for Facebook is to they want small businesses to post in groups. And when I say a group like let’s pretend that I am a laundromat and you can join the group like wandering like moms or dads, I have no idea if this really exists, but this is just an example.

00;44;26;19 – 00;44;46;14
Brittany Centers
And then you can post like your specials or what you’re doing. I’m like, if you’re running like our Back to school special, your post in those groups as your business and that’s getting a lot more organic reach. And then the algorithm is so you would post as a business and then that’s going to help boost your business because the algorithm on social media is pushing for that.

00;44;46;14 – 00;45;08;11
Brittany Centers
And so that’s what they want you to do. They want you to be really interested in groups and also still stories which we talked about stories in the last podcast. But stories are going to reach they’re pushing for stories still, but that’s just reaching your current followers. Ripples are going to reach new people. And so groups.

00;45;08;11 – 00;45;25;21
Jordan
Yeah wow I mean it gets get so is there so is there a benefit in having so for example Laundromat in L.A. is there benefit in having my own group or should I be joining groups as my business?

00;45;25;21 – 00;45;49;02
Brittany Centers
The answer to that would probably be both. You can have a group like I have some clients that are like clothing companies that have their own group where they post their name closed and that kind of stuff. So you could have a group for, you know, your area for laundry, but I think that’s going to get the most bang for your buck.

00;45;49;02 – 00;46;11;17
Brittany Centers
Now, it would be joining groups in your area that would let you post. So sometimes groups won’t even allow a business to join. So you have to find those ones that are willing to allow that. But yes, I think that joining a different group that already has that network of people, that’s going to be where you get those.

00;46;11;17 – 00;46;36;05
Jordan
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that’s a lot. We we’ve gone through kind of a lot of stuff talking about a lot of different updates and social media. And like you said, I just kind of joked in the beginning, but like social media is changing daily, right? There’s all kinds of things shifting around. It’s a little bit of a chess match between the different companies as TikTok blows up and Facebook and Instagram respond.

00;46;36;05 – 00;47;03;18
Jordan
And YouTube even has real types of things. And, you know, so everybody’s kind of responding to everybody. And, you know, as business owners, we don’t have to utilize those things. But a lot of times if we don’t, we’re leaving money on the table because, you know, some of the people that we could normally be reaching, we’re not we’re not reaching because we’re not using them.

00;47;03;18 – 00;47;26;25
Jordan
Right. And so it it’s just it’s just a big opportunity right now. And I Kim, have I said this in the beginning or or not? But I’m going to say it again. If I did say it is you know, I did a podcast episode the last one or two ago or something like that where I was talking about, you know, what we need to be planning for?

00;47;26;25 – 00;47;55;05
Jordan
We need to be aware of as business owners. If a recession is coming or whenever a recession comes or a downturn in the economy or whatever. And one of the things I was talking about is a lot of times people one of the first things people cut is their their marketing budget and their marketing in general. And, you know, when when there’s a downturn, that’s not the time to that’s not the time to to cut the marketing and stuff.

00;47;55;05 – 00;48;16;26
Jordan
And so what I love about having you back on to talk about this stuff is that these are ways that you can do both paid and free to gain exposure and to get new customers, new clients, new business for are laundry service or your laundry self-serve laundry business. You know, when times are good and when times are bad.

00;48;16;26 – 00;48;40;02
Jordan
And I would say, man, you know, as is there’s a lot of uncertainty and all that stuff. Now’s the time to double down and and dig into this stuff and not be afraid of not fully understanding everything. Not don’t be afraid of not knowing exactly, you know, how to make a real or how to make it tick tock, but get involved.

00;48;40;02 – 00;49;12;00
Jordan
But also, with all that said, I know that there’s going to be people listening to this and I kind of feel this and I’m sort of in the social media mix here, but I still kind of feel this is like all this is really overwhelming. And for those of us who are trying to run a business and we’ve got families and all, you know, life going on, you know, maybe investment, whatever, like that’s a lot to think about and adding, Hey, I got to go and make a tik-tok account, figure out how to use it and all that stuff that can feel super overwhelming.

00;49;12;11 – 00;49;21;04
Jordan
But that’s where someone like you and centered social comes in. So can you tell us just a little bit about Center Social and what you guys are doing with Laundromats?

00;49;21;26 – 00;49;43;11
Brittany Centers
Yes. So I mean, essentially all that we talked about today is what we do. I have a full time every boy that just studies the changing periods for them. Like we were ready to go. We were a little bit more hesitant on TikTok than anything that we’ve ever been because we were like, okay, let’s let’s see if this really is going to get shut down.

00;49;43;11 – 00;50;08;24
Brittany Centers
And so there’s been up and down to that, but ril’s like we’ve gone hardcore with it. You know we’re putting in roles for clients every week and you know, it’s what we do, it’s what we specialize in. And we study all the algorithms, all the how it’s going to reach clients that we’re posting rules for their. They are seeing a return of their terms per day going up and everything like that.

00;50;08;24 – 00;50;29;15
Brittany Centers
And if, you know, if someone’s struggling with this, we’re definitely here to reach out to us. You know, if they just have a couple of questions about how to do it, we’d be willing to help with that if they want someone to do it for them. Like we’re here, we study their demographics, their market center, social. We work with clients.

00;50;30;01 – 00;50;57;00
Brittany Centers
I mean, we’re over 100 wanting reps now. I actually don’t have a real number anymore. I need to do the math on that. But we have clients from like over 30 states at this point, I guess. So we’re working on lots of demographics and reaching people for the wonderment world.

00;50;57;00 – 00;51;16;28
Jordan
Yeah, which is awesome. And you know, social media management is one of those things you can DIY, you can do it yourself, but it’s a lot of work and you got to ask yourself, the question is, is it worth my time or is my time more valuable doing something different? And you can outsource it to somebody who you know, who knows what they’re doing.

00;51;16;28 – 00;51;46;22
Jordan
It’s what they do. It’s, you know, and that and if you’re in that camp center, social are a great, great option for you. You can reach out. I’ll put links to center social in the show notes and if you’re on YouTube, going to be down below in the description. But real quick, I just got a shout out that center social is partner with laundromat resource and you do get a yeah pretty generous little perk what I call pro perk for joining the pro community over there.

00;51;46;22 – 00;52;07;17
Jordan
So if you’re interested in learning about that and I will say that your pro perk alone more than covers the investment to be in the pro community. So despite I mean, there’s everything else that comes with it, but your pro property alone is, you know, more than covers, you know, the the pro park there. So that’s something you’re interested in.

00;52;07;17 – 00;52;34;09
Jordan
Check out center social if you know if you want to come join the pro community. A lot of my resource that concierge pro and enjoy that pro perk we have a center social Britany this has been very educational on like multi dimensions from like I learned a new breed. I learned a lot about reptiles and I learned about tik-tok reels and Facebook groups all in one podcast episode.

00;52;34;10 – 00;52;36;14
Jordan
That’s like pretty impressive actually. Yeah.

00;52;36;14 – 00;52;49;09
Brittany Centers
I appreciate you having me on. And unfortunately, probably in about two months, everything that we talked about will change right? Again, that’s the way social media is.

00;52;50;22 – 00;53;14;11
Jordan
Yeah. Well, I mean, we’re proud to do this on a regular on a regular basis and it just kind of keep everybody updated, but really appreciate you taking the time and coming on and look forward to having you on again. Again, Center Socialist Brittney Centers and man, we will see you in the next social media eternity, which, I don’t know, maybe like six months or so we can talk about everything else.

00;53;14;12 – 00;53;16;16
Jordan
It’s new and how all this is all irrelevant now.

00;53;17;20 – 00;53;17;29
Brittany Centers
All right.

00;53;19;05 – 00;53;46;19
Jordan
All right. Well, that is all right, as always. Britney was awesome, brought a lot of really great updated information about what’s going on in the world of social media and how you, as a Laundromat owner or future laundromat owner can improve your business, gain more customers, communicate better with your customers, create loyalty, all those things. How you can do that through social media and you know, honestly, there’s a lot to do, a lot to keep up with.

00;53;46;26 – 00;54;11;16
Jordan
And if you’re somebody who’s looking to have that social media side of your business manage by center social, make sure you check out center social, there’s a link again in the show notes. A lot of my resource accounts are show 98 in the description in YouTube and if you’re thinking about jumping on board with center social, it’s just a no brainer to join the pro community because you will actually save money.

00;54;11;24 – 00;54;37;05
Jordan
And not only that, you’ll get access to all the other tools, resources, yadda, yadda, yadda, information that we got over there in the pro community. So go join that. But all of this is for nothing unless you’re putting stuff into action. So pick one thing. If nothing else, just pick one thing from today’s episode. Put it into action this week.

00;54;37;05 – 00;55;00;05
Jordan
It’s when we start stacking these actions from every week of, you know, listen to the podcast, pulling out a lesson or a nugget or whatever and putting it into action, stacking those actions, that’s going to help you achieve your goals and lead to success, not just stacking the knowledge. Right. So we want to be action takers here because again, that’s what’s going to get you what you want out of life.

00;55;00;05 – 00;55;25;16
Jordan
So pick something, put it into action. And my something that I’m picking actually is I’m I’m going to go I’ve done this before. And, you know, it’s been a little bit of a struggle, but I want to get back into getting a video editor so that I can put out some more content on reels. And I to try to duck, you know, and see what happens over there.

00;55;26;03 – 00;55;47;19
Jordan
Britney convinced me. Awesome. Let somebody know what your action step is. Go take action this week and we’ll see you next week with an awesome, awesome update episode with a Baltimore multi store owner that you are going to love. I guarantee you’re going to get a ton out of that episode next week. So we’ll see then piece.