PRSay Houston

The Impact of Social Media Marketing with Leslee Hackett

• Veronica V. Sopher, PRSA Member and Host

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Welcome to PRSay, the podcast of the Houston Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America! On PRSay we spotlight our talented members and get to know each other a little better.

Today’s guest is Leslee Hackett. As an avid learner, Leslee is always committed to improving her craft within the Public Relations and Communications field. Leslee is an analytical thinker that has a proven track record of developing successful social media plans, content creation and management ideas, effective media monitoring, concise trend spotting, creating pitches, conducting website updates, and making Canva based graphics.

As well as established key strategies that thrive in any company environment such as the execution of external and internal marketing techniques.

When Leslee is not working within the PR field you can find her taking photos, volunteering, teaching bible study, and learning new tricks of the trade!

Tune in to this episode to learn more about Leslee and be sure to connect on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleeh/

Learn more about the PRSA Houston Chapter, our events and opportunities at www.prsahouston.org.

PRSay is brought to you by Veronica V. Sopher, Public Relations. 

Veronica Sopher:

Welcome to PRSay, the podcast of the Houston chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. On PR, say, we spotlight our talented members and get to know each other a little better. If you are a PRSA Houston chapter member and don't get a chance to network as much as you'd like, or are unable to attend our in person events, here's your chance to connect with your fellow members. Hello and welcome to PRSay, this is the official podcast of the Houston chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. I'm your host, Veronica sopher, and I'm thrilled to be here with you on another episode of PR. Say, because we get to meet and engage with all of our members on this podcast, we enjoy connecting and making sure that people know each other. Sometimes we can't be at events face to face, so connecting on the podcast and reaching out to folks is the best way to grow your network in our prsa chapter. So I'm very excited about today's episode. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you need to hit subscribe so that you don't miss any episodes of PRSay. So just hit that subscribe button and you'll get notified every time we release a new podcast. And if you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, make sure you drop us some comments and my guest and I will come back and say hello to you. So with that, we'll go ahead and get this episode started. I'm very excited to introduce you to Leslie Hackett. She's joining us today. Hello, Leslie

Leslee Hackett:

hi everyone. How's it going?

Veronica Sopher:

Oh, it's so good. I'm so glad to see you, and I love the festive headband that you got going on. I'm a I'm a big fan of that. And so tell me a little bit about yourself and your your place in prsa, you're in the Houston chapter, because we all come from it from a different direction. And I always like to start off so that our members know who they're meeting.

Leslee Hackett:

Yeah, for sure. So I went to school at Texas Tech, and I actually have my master's in communications from there, and I always love talking. So I figured, you know, since I love talking. Why not get paid doing it? And so I went and specialized in communications, and I've been in PR for about seven years now, and I love it. I love the versatility of it all that every day is a different day. It's not like a cookie cutter situation. And so that's why I love the thrill of PR and communications altogether. I got started doing school PR. I loved it. Like I said, every day was a different day. It was a lot of thrills and excitement. It was good sharing the stories of students and teachers across the district, sharing their impact that they have, you know, within the community and with stakeholders. And so I did that for four years, and then I moved up into the corporate world. Loved it there as well, getting my foot there, seeing how it works in the corporate sector, and so now I am starting my own business, doing communications, and I like that too, right? I love helping other people get their business started, or help them out with their digital media. And as far as how I got involved with prsa, it's just a year ago. I wanted to get my APR, and I found out, well, I had to be a member of prsa in order to get my APR certification, and so that's how I started, about a year ago. That's awesome. That's very excited. We love APR, and we love to hear folks really reaching for the goals. It does so much for our profession. Of course, I have a passion for school public relations as well. So you know, you had me, right? You had me from the beginning, Leslie, because you were speaking my love language there. So So tell us about how you go about helping folks with their social media. Because for some people, especially if you're coming from an agency or a corporate background, you may not have your hands in social media. You've got maybe a younger team member or a different team member doing that kind of work, but there's a lot to it, and the strategies is pretty complex, so let's talk about that just a little bit. Yes, so social media is constantly changing, right? All these platforms are constantly competing with each other, and like I said, That's what I love about the versatility about communications, is that you're always having to stay in the know and stay up to date with the trends that are happening. And so to get gradually started into social media is just simple. Just sign up and see what's on there. A lot of people knock Tiktok because they're saying, Oh, no one's on that platform. How can I market my business on it? But in reality, everybody is on it. My mom is even on Tiktok. You know, she's not posting anything, but she's looking at recipes, how to remove things in the kitchen, how to organize things. There's so much information alone on social media that I don't I want everyone to feel welcome, to be on there and to learn as much as possible. And so that's the gradual process. Just sign up and search for the things that you want to learn about and that you want to know about. Mm, hmm, yeah. Now that's it sounds like my some people might be a little fearful of it, but once you get into it, and same thing, once my mom was on Facebook, I knew we'd, we'd moved into a different phase of our life, right? Because there is, it's, it's a comfort level. And so I think fearing what you don't know is half the battle. So I think you're right. Just signing up. I. What are some of the especially when you're working with clients who maybe have a marketing goal or a sales goal, what are some of the things you want them to be thinking about when it comes to implementing social media? Because some people follow the rules of only posting three times a day, or some people over post or under post. When you're working with folks, folks, how do you get them to find the right balance? Yeah. So the great thing about that is you don't need to worry about what everyone else is doing right? Just put the information out there. So starting with what you know best. So if you know for sure that you're a roofing company, start with what you know best by posting information about roofs, the different services that you do and getting comfortable with what you already know before navigating and worrying about the great details of, yeah, how many times should I post? Should I do hashtags? Don't worry about all that. Start with the basics first, and then move up from there. No, that's true. The hashtags can be a little intimidating, honestly.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, so, so do you recommend that when you're working with clients, do you recommend that they have a dedicated person to doing it? Or do you how do you suggest an organization structure their social media efforts?

Leslee Hackett:

Oh, yes, for sure, social media is a full time job. Okay? And so I recommend. That's where I come in, right? You hire me to help manage and develop the social media content, the schedule, how you're going to photograph, you know, take pictures of things, do video. So that's where I come in, right? To help you with your business, to get that all in place, because it is a full time job, a lot of people, even yourself, even if you're not trying to put your business out there. You yourself are on there for hours, right minute, day, and so it is a lot of work to maintain that. And so that's where I come in, and I recommend that you get someone dedicated to social media and knows what they're doing to help grow your business and help get your name out there.

Veronica Sopher:

Mm, hmm, yeah. What's one of the mistakes that you see people doing as as they're getting into the social media space. I mean, what's one that you're just like, oh goodness, if I could just help, if I could just help them stop doing that? What would that be?

Leslee Hackett:

Sound, right? So a lot of people will put up with bad video quality, but if the sound is horrible, they're gonna keep scrolling. So I say sound is the most important thing, making sure that there's really no distractions in the background with sounds, that way people can hear what you're advertising and be aware of what you're advertising. I know that right now, songs is a very popular thing, right? They're getting hit songs in the background because it's something that's popular and people will recognize. So sound is the most important thing, that if it's off, I'm like, Okay, I'm scrolling. This isn't important anymore. I don't even know what's going on. So I say sound is the most important part. I would agree. Sound is definitely it. And being the wife of a sound engineer and broadcast engineer, I can tell you that that is definitely what we talk about a lot in our house. We can handle, we can handle the visuals, not being well, right? But the sound then we're out, we're done. You lost us. Yes, exactly, exactly.

Veronica Sopher:

So Leslie, when you are thinking about starting to work with a company or an organization, what are some of the things you're looking for in terms of being able to support them? In other words, do they need to be a brick and mortar? Are you looking for nonprofits? You in particular, what really just lights you up as you're thinking about helping an organization grow?

Leslee Hackett:

Honestly, I'm helping everyone. There isn't a particular sector or anything that I'm actually focusing on, because everyone needs to be on social media, because that's we're in a digital world right as we're starting to enter the web, three things of the internet, everyone should be on the internet. So there's not really, like a niche sector that I'm aiming toward, because I believe everyone should be on there, and they should benefit for the features that's on there. And so the things that I'm mainly looking for, do you have the basics, right? Your mission, your vision, your goals? Do you have a logo, right? Simple things that's already started for your company- So when you're navigating yourself on social media, all that stuff is set up, because everyone, when you're even posting, you're trying to get more information, you're always want to leave them back to a website. So making sure that those basics are set up are the main things that I'm looking for when I try to help out a company.

Veronica Sopher:

That's great and that's good to know, and absolutely I agree everyone should be, should be on the internet. Um, so shifting gears a little bit. Do you partner with any other organizations or any other firms I know sometimes, I know some agencies just started in the last five or six years even offering social media as part of their packages, because they were just so focused on collateral or outdoor signage or whatever they were doing. How do you find that there's opportunity for you to connect with other PR people?

Leslee Hackett:

Oh, yes, for sure, because we're everywhere, right? Because everyone is on social media, and that's what I love about PRSA, because there's so many of us working in the digital media space that we're able to connect and compare agencies and see what's working what's not working, and build from there, right? The networking is important. So there really is an importance of that, right, connecting with people, fellowshipping, doing podcasts like this, getting your name out there and everything. So that's the main thing about it.

Veronica Sopher:

Mm, hmm. No, I think that's so true, and I love that our chapter in particular is so committed to finding those networking opportunities, because that's what's really going to help us not only grow our own learning, but our own brand and our own businesses. And so you're you're right on point there. Um, Leslie, how can people connect with you? Um, are you taking new clients? What? What are you up to? And how can people learn more about your offerings?

Leslee Hackett:

Oh, yes, for sure. So you can go ahead and visit my website. It's actually my name, Lesliehackett.com and visit me anytime on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, I love it's basically a professional Facebook. Everyone is on it. You can find so much information on there. Post look LinkedIn even now has a funny avatar, okay, a funny emoji. So you can even laugh on there share information, all types of things. So LinkedIn is the best place to find me.

Veronica Sopher:

That's fantastic. All right, and we will make sure that those are in the show notes. Any last comments you'd like to make to our to our audience, so that other prsa members know a little bit more about you.

Leslee Hackett:

Yeah, stay active in PR say, Houston, it's a great chapter. Follow us on social media, right? We have a lot of great information that's coming out. PR Day is coming out in a couple weeks, so we hope to see you there, because we know that we're going to be blasting out a lot on social media and using digital media altogether.

Veronica Sopher:

Yes, so true love. The plug. Thank you so much Leslie for being on.

Leslee Hackett:

Thank you.

Veronica Sopher:

All right, guys, that wraps up this episode of PRSay again, our goal is to connect our members here in the Houston chapter so that we can stay connected and support each other in our learning and our businesses as we're growing. So we're gonna go ahead and wrap up this episode. Just a reminder to hit subscribe if you are listening to the podcast, if you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, drop us some comments. Say hello to Leslie and I, and we will be sure to connect with you. We'll catch you next time!