rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Hey folks, and welcome back to

the Small Tech Podcast by EC.

Today, we've got another amazing guest.

She is a graduate of Stonehill College,
a TEDx speaker, and has been named a 40

Under 40 honoree by CAPE and Plymouth
Business Media, recognized as Best Social

Media Specialist by Boston Business Women,
board member for a variety of places.

Meet Ashley Mason, the
brain behind Dash of Social.

Hi, Ashley.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Hi, Raph.

Thank you so much for having me.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
I'm so excited to have you on.

So let's talk a little
bit about your background.

What brought you to where
you are at the moment?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Absolutely.

So as you mentioned, my company is
Dash of Social, which is a content

marketing agency based in Massachusetts.

We focus a lot on social media
management, email marketing, and

blog content for tech startups.

I got into marketing actually
back in 2012 when I had started

a fashion and lifestyle blog.

And long story short, use social
media to become a micro influencer.

My use of social media to grow my own
brand made me realize how much of an

impact it can make for very little cost,
with different brands and organizations,

with building their online presence
and reaching the right audiences and

it made me realize how much I really
enjoyed marketing and being able to

support organizations in this capacity.

So that sparked an interest.

I dabbled in freelancing here and
there, starting in probably 2014,

before I eventually started Dash of
Social in 2016, and now here I am.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Nice.

And so what was that transition
like between sort of the freelancing

and what you've created now?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, that's a great question.

So I think what ended up happening
was when I was freelancing, it was

obviously just me, but it got to the
point where, which is a good problem to

have, I had a lot of clients that were
kind of coming on and it got to the

point where I realized that I physically
had reached a ceiling in my business.

I could not dedicate any more time
to work with all these clients

if it was just going to be me.

And so that made me realize that it
was a good opportunity to transition

from just being a freelancer, to
starting my agency and being able to

bring on a really talented, capable,
and dependable team to support our

clients with a variety of different
marketing strategies and executions.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
I feel like a lot of the people who are

going to be listening to this also are
going to hit that ceiling at one point.

You build a small thing, you get really
excited about it, hopefully it grows,

and eventually you have to figure
out how to move into that next step.

I'm kind of curious to hear more
about, like, the types of projects that

you've worked on, like, what's your
favorite kind of project to work on?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, I really love

social media management.

I mean, especially with tech companies.

Within the tech space, there's so
much that's happening so quickly.

And I think that being able to have
someone on your team who can help you to

support, uh, being able to post in your
social media profiles, and share and

communicate everything that you're up to.

With potential clients, potential
customers, potential investors,

potential board members.

I mean, there's so many audiences
that you can reach and speak

to through social media.

And I think it's crucial to ensure
that consistency as you're building

your startup or building your brand.

So we support companies
who are in stealth mode.

So perhaps they're not
even really public yet.

They're working on building up a presence.

So when they do launch, they kind of have
an audience that's already been built.

And we also support companies who kind of,
once they get that funding, they're like,

marketing is one of the first things that
we're going to invest this money into.

So it's really great to be able to work
with companies in all these different

stages and just help them grow.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yeah, as you're talking about those

different sort of stages and different
channels and audiences, I was thinking so

many people that I know, including myself
will just get stuck in like building a

thing and just forget to talk about it.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Um, so it sounds great to have

someone to be like, no, no, no.

You got to talk about it.

You got to get it out there, even
perhaps before you've built it.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Exactly.

That's a great point.

And I mean, one thing that I always
remind my clients is no one's going

to know what you sell if you don't
tell them what you're selling.

And so it's just like a great
reminder to be consistent and be

active on your social media profiles.

So that way your audience knows what
you're doing and what you're up to.

And I also like to say, which is really
important, One of my favorite quotes

that I can relate to personally, which
is the shoe cobbler's son has no shoes.

So you're usually so focused on developing
and executing something that you're

kind of neglecting your own thing.

And so it's kind of tough to just
remember to not only work on your

business, but work in your business.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
So the things that we tend to talk about

tend to be a digital product and in your
case correct me if I'm wrong, you're

doing digital marketing only, right?

Or is that, or do you,
any kind of marketing?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Digital marketing primarily.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Okay.

So this intersection of like the digital
space digital products and communications

do you have any thoughts about connecting
your communications, your marketing

strategies into your digital tools.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, so, I mean, there's a

variety of different tools.

I think it's important
to find one that works.

I mean, if we're talking about
social media specifically, a

handful of social media platforms
have built in tools within them.

So, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram,
Meta, they all have built in analytics.

They all have built in social
media schedulers, so that way

you can schedule your posts.

I think it's really important to kind
of rely on, What's given to you for free

or at a low cost just to start and then
once you end up building and scaling,

then you can start to pursue paid
tools or tools that might have further

capabilities depending on what you're
looking for, but definitely don't hesitate

to start small and then kind of see what
you would need and what features all

these different platforms might offer.

But I mean, there's so much right
at your hands that you can kind of

dive into and help you to automate,
which I think is so important.

Automate your marketing, and kind of have
it on autopilot, so that way it's just

out of sight, out of mind, but you know
that your stuff is getting taken care of.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

I think specifically from like a
digital product builders perspective,

we talk so much about automation,
but often we talk about it in the

context of our code and running builds
and deployments and stuff like that.

For our products, uh, but we
completely lose track of all of the

other things that can be automated.

Yeah, like your marketing.

So, yeah, if you can dig a little bit
deeper into that, like, what can you

automate in your marketing strategy?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
So of course there's scheduling.

So I always recommend for anyone
who's handling their marketing

in house to whenever possible,
batch create their content.

So that might involve dedicating one day
per week or maybe a few days per month to

creating all of your marketing content.

So whether it's writing your social
media posts, scheduling your newsletters,

creating blog posts, you're able
to then schedule those in advance.

So that way you don't have to worry about
posting in the moment or remembering that

you have a post scheduled and, Oh, I got
to make sure to now post this manually

because chances are you just won't do it.

So I always recommend automating the
scheduling process so that way you

know your stuff is getting posted
and you're staying consistent.

But there's also a lot of automation
within, um, analytics, of course, like

you don't have to manually go through
and comb through your social media

profiles or your website analytics to
see how your content is performing.

You're able to use tools
that automatically pull

that information for you.

So between those, between the scheduling,
between the analytics, I think it's

huge to be able to find things that can
kind of do the heavy lifting for you.

So that way you're not so much in
the weeds with doing it yourself.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
I'm going to go down a little path that

I think is a little awkward in some
ways, which is AI and large language

models and all of these things.

I feel like that is, that fits
into this automation conversation.

But, I feel like there's a
lot of tough conversations to

have around that specifically.

So Yeah, what are your thoughts on AI?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Honestly, this is a, one of my favorite

things to talk about because I think there
is a lot of opportunity for good with AI.

I mean, I think if you're using AI to
just straight up write your content

and you're not editing or anything like
that, from someone else's perspective,

or at least me personally, I instantly
know when someone has used Chat GPT

to write a social media caption.

I think it's really important, if you
are going to use it, to heavily edit it.

100 percent you need to fact check because
it doesn't necessarily mean, necessarily

mean that the information is correct.

So I think if you're going to use
it for writing, you definitely

need to make it in your own voice.

But I think that AI is
huge for idea generation.

I mean, a lot of times we all hit that
creative burnout where we need to write

a blog post or we need to write a social
media post and we're like, Oh, I don't

even know what topic to write about,
so if you go to Chat GPT and type in

a prompt that will just help you come
up with ideas, that will spark so much

creativity and inspiration, and now you
can go write the content on your own.

So I think it's huge for just being
able to help you think of topics and

get some creativity into your day to
day, but to actually do the work for

you, I think that's a little bit iffy.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
How about images?

How do you feel about those?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Images, I mean, I also think

that's really, um, obvious
when someone's using it.

I mean, the Kate Middleton image
that happened a month or two months

ago, whenever that was, I mean,
the internet blew up when they

saw her disjointed body parts.

So, I think it's really you really
need to pay close attention.

I mean, we've all kind of noticed stock
images as well, where people that are

generated by AI and people kind of
have like six fingers on one hand.

And so it's not always
generated accurately.

So I think being able to just make sure
that you're on the pulse with that and

triple checking everything before it
gets published or before you share it

publicly is really, really important.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yep so all of this content that

we're generating, putting together,
scheduling, like how, how do

we deliver all of these things?

You sent me a little something about,
the content marketing trifecta.

Do you want to dig into that a little bit.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Absolutely.

So when people think of digital
marketing, I think they instantly

think of social media, and a lot of
people are really tempted to just go

all in in social media and honestly
kind of forget that other things exist.

I am always feeling like I'm
saying to my clients, Don't put

all of your eggs in one basket.

Don't focus only on social media.

There are so many other avenues
and outlets that you can use to

reach your audience and help to
establish that thought leadership.

So by being able to diversify your
marketing strategy into social

media, into blog content, into email
marketing, now you have three well

rounded tactics that you can execute.

So in order to do that seamlessly
and help you to break down further

content, I always recommend starting
with producing long form content.

So whether it's a podcast recording like
this or a blog post or a video, being able

to create content that might be a little
bit longer in length and then actually

take that content into and condense it.

So you can take that blog post, so to
say, and perhaps pull three to five social

media posts from just that one blog and
the information that you wrote in it.

So you're ultimately repurposing
it, and you're doing less work but

getting more output from it, and
you're able to therefore save time but

still provide value to your audience.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yep and so repurposing content,

reusing things across channels in
different ways, is there, are there

ways that you would recommend sort of
moving people between these different

channels and yeah how does that work.

How do you see what's working,
what's not, and how they intersect.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, oh, great question.

So to see what's working and what
isn't, you can always look, for social

media specifically, at the analytics
that are available within the platform.

So you can see how many likes you get on
a post, how many followers came from a

post, how many comments, shares, saves,
all that information is right there for

you, which is super helpful to reference
when creating a post future content.

From driving people from one outlet
to another, I mean, you can really

kind of create some type of circle
or cycle where you can post in your

social media, a call to action for
people to sign up for your email list.

Whether you have a lead magnet that you
offer them in exchange for their email

address or you just have a straight up,
sign up form, you can use social media

to promote the opportunity for people
to join your email list and explain the

benefits that they'll get from doing so.

You can do the same with
promoting a blog post.

So if you write a social media post
to promote a new blog post that you

just wrote and published, now you
can direct people, the people who

follow you on social media, to now
go to your blog and read that blog.

You can also drive people from
your blog to your social media.

So, of course, we should
all have a website in 2024.

So if you're using a website and
including, Links to your social

media profiles at the bottom of it
or within your blog post itself.

Now you get website visitors who
become social media followers.

So it's really great to kind of think
about how ultimately this ecosystem,

which is what it really is with
marketing, how this ecosystem connects

and you're driving people from seeing
you on one corner of the internet

to now seeing you in another corner.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yeah, there's something that I

find difficult to conceptualize or
like how should I be moving people

through a funnel like that and
what should be my top of funnel?

How do I lead them to the right places?

I think that sort of like the
movement within the ecosystem and

figuring out where the correct
sort of end target is, is something

that I find a little hard to think.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah.

Oh, I love that you asked that.

So I would say you want to, the
really top of the funnel is awareness.

You just want people to find out who
you are and to find out what you offer.

So I think awareness comes the
easiest through social media, because

it's so easy to reach such a wide
amount of people with little effort.

So when people discover you on social
media, you want to bring them to the next

point in the funnel Which is interest.

Now that they know who you
are, now they're coming

interested in what you offer.

When they're interested in what you
offer, that leads them to your website.

So you're taking them from social media
to your website where they can learn who

you are, what you do, and how you help.

Once they're on your website, they're
probably poking around, they're

maybe reading blog posts that you've
published, maybe they're checking

out the product that you're building
and finding interest in that.

Now they really want to learn
more about that product.

And how can they learn
more about that product?

By getting on your email list.

That's the third step.

So now you've brought that awareness,
you've brought the interest, and

now you're bringing the nurturing by
getting them on your email list and

they can receive those consistent
newsletters to find out about product

updates, launch timelines, exciting
news that are happening within the

tech startup, and really being able
to peak their interest from there.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Thinking about like that top of funnel

and social, what about advertising?

Where does advertising
fit into all of that?

I hate LinkedIn.

I feel like they always charge so
much for such terrible results, but

yeah, beyond that, what else is there?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, I mean, advertising is always

a good idea, but I say, it's, you
should always make sure that you have a

consistent organic presence tied to it if
you're going to spend money on paid ads.

Because if you're running paid ads but
you haven't posted to your social media

profiles in three months, people might
go from your ad to your profile and be

like, hmm, why isn't this company posting?

Like, it might give them
almost some hesitancy and kind

of question your legitimacy.

So I think paid ads are a good idea.

I also am a huge fan of partnership
marketing, so being able to collaborate

with another company or another
individual and create content together.

So that might be what we're doing.

We're hosting a podcast together.

That might be hosting
a webinar with someone.

You can also joint write
blog posts together.

You can host an in person event.

I mean, there's so many opportunities
to partner with someone who shares a

similar audience and is building a product
complementary to yours and be able to

provide value to your audience itself.

Now you're getting seen in front of their
followers, in front of their connections,

through the joint marketing promoting
that you're doing, and it makes such a

big impact for, such a little amount of
effort and time, which is really amazing.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445: Yep.

I'm curious what you think of, okay.

So if we're thinking specifically
about like digital products,

marketing presumably doesn't end
once they get in the product.

How do you think about keeping people
engaged and how your marketing ties

into driving retention and that sort of

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, that's such a good point.

I always say it's so much more
important to retain your customers

than it is to acquire new ones.

So, I think with so many new products
being built all the time and tech

startups getting some competitors,
you want to remind your customers

why they've chosen your product.

So, I think this is especially helpful
with webinars, if you do like a product

roadmap and show what new features are
coming up in the next few months, in

the next quarter, in the next year, that
keeps your current customers excited

about what they can expect to receive.

I think sharing that same messaging
within newsletters, whether you send

like a monthly newsletter or a quarterly
newsletter that says, Hey, here's what's

happening within our organization that
you can expect to see is really important.

I also think this isn't necessarily
marketing, but I guess a part of,

um, sales and customer service,
which does integrate with marketing,

but that's being able to set up,
um, customer satisfaction surveys.

So having customer service reps just
have a candid conversation with their

customers and say, what do you like?

What do you not like?

What could you do without?

What would you like to see that
we're not currently offering?

Those conversations give you
so much insight that you can

then use to create content.

I mean, if you're hearing pain
points, if you're hearing questions

that your customers are asking you,
you can take that information that,

that they're sharing, and you can
actually write social media posts

addressing the topic, or create an FAQ
page on your website that addresses

those questions, and now you have so
much content to use moving forward.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
I love it.

Yeah, that's like crowdsourcing
your content from, from the

people you're trying to sell

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yes,

exactly.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yeah, super cool.

Do you want to talk a little
bit about specifically your

context in Massachusetts?

Is there something else that
you'd like to poke around at?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, I mean, I would say, um, I think

a huge point about focusing on marketing
for, um, a company that's building a tech

product is that you want to also focus
on the executives within that company.

So I think oftentimes people often think
about, you know, The corporate itself

focusing on their marketing, but there's
a huge untapped potential when you're

leveraging your CEO's LinkedIn profile
or other executives LinkedIn profiles

that can help to bolster the credibility
within the organization and help to

get seen in front of their connections.

And again, that's kind of a form of
partnership marketing, but you're

now using their personal brands
to drive your mission forward.

Yeah.

thing that I, so I've been doing a bit
of that where we'll put together some

content and post it on my profile and
then cross post it and back and forth.

but when you're talking to someone
at a company and you're telling the

executives that you need to do this.

I felt very hesitant at first with this.

like, this is my, my personal profile.

I kind of want to disconnect
it, but then I realized that

there is a lot of value there.

Um, and that I can bring in my sort of
personal stories and that can still be

part of the sort of company message.

So how do you communicate that
with executives at a company?

Yeah, I think that's something a
lot of people kind of go through,

is they have that hesitancy.

I always say that in the several years
that you've been in your industry, you've

built up quite a few contacts of people
who should know what you're doing and

what you're up to, and the chances are
that these executives themselves simply

just don't have the time to do it.

They know that they need to focus on
their own LinkedIn profile, But it

all comes down to just not having the
time or resources to help them do it.

So, knowing that you can kind of use the
people that you've had in your network.

To, to your advantage, ultimately,
by sharing what you're up to and what

you're building, I think that can kind of
pique, pique some interest from people.

And there might be people who see
that post who come out and who might

be now interested in investing in it,
or interested in becoming a customer.

And so you just never
know what could happen.

I also think it's a lot easier to
have someone else manage your profile.

I mean, in addition to what I mentioned
with time, a lot of people just kind

of struggle to write about themselves.

So when you have someone else who's
actually writing the content and creating

it, it makes it so much easier because
we all sit there and if we have to

write our own bio, we're like, I don't
even know what to say about myself.

But having someone else who's kind of
taking on that content writing role,

it makes it so much easier for you
because now you're removed from it and

it makes it actually ensure that you're
having stuff posted to your profile.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yep, that makes a lot of sense.

Um, and yeah, writing your own bio.

I feel like it's always such a

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Exactly.

It's awkward to write about yourself.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445: Yep,
you mentioned something there, which was

investors, and I guess a lot of the people
who will be listening to this podcast will

have either to raise money at some point
whether it is from venture capital, angel

investors, or maybe it's foundations,
it's grants, it's that sort of thing, but

they still need to build a relationship
with the people in those organizations.

How does your work, how does
digital marketing fit into

those types of communications?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
so I have, uh, some clients previously

who have actually had an email
list segment on their email list

who was just actually investors.

So it was people who worked at VC
firms and anytime we had an exciting

announcement or a partnership, we
sent a newsletter to that list just

kind of explaining what happened.

We shared a link to the press release.

We shared a video that went along with it.

It was an easy way to communicate with
100 plus people about this big thing that

was happening within the organization.

I also think social media is social
proof, so people want to know that

something's working before they
end up giving their money to it.

So when you use social media to showcase
happy customers through testimonials, or

showcase the new and innovative features
that you have coming up, Investors can

go and see your content that you're
posting and they'll say, Hey, this, this

company is moving and shaking over here.

They're really making an impact and I
think it might make them feel more secure

and more confident in their investment
that they may want to make in the future.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Cool.

Well, thank you so much, Ashley.

This is a lot of amazing stuff.

So we're on the small tech podcast
and what small tech product do

you want to wrap this up with?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Yeah, I love Descript.

I am also a podcast host.

I feature, business owners and
professionals in Massachusetts, and

so I've used Descript for probably
the past two and a half years to pull

transcripts from my podcast episodes.

I use it to create videos, um, be able to
edit them, and includes closed captioning.

And I just really love how easy it is to
take a video and make something really

pretty and really aesthetic, since I
don't consider myself to be a video

editor, and I think just the features
that they offer at such a great price

is really important for someone who's
kind of creating their own content and

looking to have a professional feel to it.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yeah, that's awesome.

I love Descript so much.

We've been using it now for a couple years
and it's such a game changer when it comes

to doing videos, doing podcasts, audio.

It's yeah, I don't know.

What are what are your favorite features?

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
So I would say I love the transcript

part because I share a transcript
for every podcast episode.

And I mean, when I had a podcast
years ago, I actually hand wrote my

transcripts and I cringe thinking about
that because it took me so much time

and I can't imagine doing that now.

But it's so important for
accessibility, so I love that

Descript automates that for me.

I also love that I'm able to use it
because I create a lot of short videos.

I love that I'm able to use
it to quickly edit my videos.

If I say a filler word like,
um, or if I mess something up,

all I need to do is delete that.

The text of where I said that mistake
and it automatically updates the video

itself, which I think is amazing.

And I also love that I can easily brand
it and include my logo, include my brand

colors within the closed captioning.

I mean, I think it just makes it
really easy and really feasible to

create really great and engaging
videos in such a short amount of time.

rapha-l--he-him-_1_04-30-2024_083445:
Yeah, for sure.

That is that is exactly
what we love about it, too.

It's so good This episode is not
sponsored by Descript, but if

they do want to sponsor cool.

Well, thank you so much.

She is Ashley Mason, and her
company is Dash of Social, and this

has been the small tech podcast.

Ashley, thanks.

ashley-mason--she-her-_1_04-30-2024_113445:
Thank you, Raph.

Thronmax MDrill One Pro & USB Video:
And that was my interview with

Ashley Mason, have a dash of social.

You can go find her at dashofsocial.com.

You can find the podcast
at smalltechpodcast.com.

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everywhere you can find podcasts.

Remember to subscribe.

It helps us out.

Remember to rate and review,
if you enjoyed the episode.

And if you'd like to be a guest,
we'd love to have you on reach out.

And we'll talk about all things, tech and
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You can also find us at
ephemerecreative.ca or goec.io.

That's probably easier.

And I will see you in the next one.

We all want to do something
good in the world.

So go out there and build
something good folks.

See ya!