How To Book More Weddings With A Seasonal Social Media Strategy With Nina Addeo

In this episode we’ll cover:

• Why posting consistently isn’t enough if your content doesn’t connect with where your couples are in the booking journey
• How to use the natural flow of the engagement and wedding season to plan what to post
• The difference between educational, promotional, and connection-building content and why you need all three
• How to keep your social media strategy simple, seasonal, and effective
• What to focus on if you want social media to bring in real leads and bookings
• How a seasonal approach can help you book more weddings without burning yourself out

How To Book More Weddings With A Seasonal Social Media Strategy With Nina Addeo

0:00:00 – Heidi Thompson
If you’ve ever stared at your screen thinking, what the hell do I even post on social media, you are not alone. In this episode, we’re breaking down how to make social media easier by tapping into the natural seasons of the wedding industry, so you’re always saying the right thing at the right time.

0:00:23 – Intro
In a world where wedding professionals are struggling to market and grow their businesses, one podcast brings together top experts and actionable strategies to help you build the wedding business of your dreams. This is the Evolve your Wedding Business Podcast. Here is your host, Heidi Thompson.

0:00:59 – Heidi Thompson
Hello there, my friend, welcome to the podcast. I’m your host, heidi Thompson, and I help wedding pros of all different kinds book more weddings with clients they love, make their marketing easier and grow their wedding businesses without working you know 60, 80 hour weeks, and I am really excited for this topic. This is one. When Nina Adio, our guest, brought it up to me, I was like hell. Yes, we definitely need to do this, Because so many people get so stuck with social media when it comes to what to post, and then you post stuff and you don’t hear anything.

So what should you be posting when? How to get it to actually work for you? We are getting into all of that in this episode, but we’re approaching it in a very specific way because, I mean, we have a cyclical calendar, we have seasons in the wedding industry, so we’re going to be talking about social strategies by season and how to come up with content that’s going to work for your ideal clients. That’s going to get you in front of them, it’s going to get you discovered, it’s going to get you engaging with them and booking them, and I really think you’re going to enjoy this way of thinking about social media. If you don’t know Nina Adio. She’s the owner of I Do Wedding Marketing, which is a social media marketing agency specific to the wedding industry, and that’s why I was so excited when she brought this topic up, because every day she is creating content for wedding businesses. You are going to get so much out of this.

When we recorded this together, I think I took about two pages of notes just for myself. So listen in to this interview with Nina. Today. I’m joined by Nina Adio from I Do Wedding Marketing. She is involved with all things social media. She is my person I go to when I need someone to talk about something specifically around social media, especially for wedding pros. And today we’re going to be talking about social strategies for different seasons, because a lot of people don’t realize this, but in a seasonal industry, we really need to be thinking about our social media differently at different parts of the year. So, nina welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

0:03:40 – Nina Addeo
Thank you for having me, Heidi. It’s always a delight to talk to you.

0:03:45 – Heidi Thompson
Well, I know when we first started talking about this, we were talking about engagement season, so let’s maybe start there. When it comes to doing social media for your clients, or if you’re teaching people what they should be posting and we’re looking specifically at engagement season, what is your approach?

0:04:09 – Nina Addeo
So there’s so many different ways to approach this. The first two approaches are going to be through your content and through how you’re engaging and interacting with couples. So first we’ll talk about content, and let’s forget that engagement season starts during the holidays. We’ll put the holidays separate. What’s important to think about during engagement season is that potentially, you will be getting the most new eyes to your page and their new qualified eyes, as in recently engaged couples. So what are the most important messages and takeaways and things you want this kind of new class to know?

0:04:54 – Heidi Thompson
That’s a really good way to think about it, because I think you know, we all know we get kind of a new batch, a new I like how you said that a new class of people coming through that are newly engaged. But we’re in this every day. You know we’re in this constantly and I’m sure you probably get a lot of resistance to no, we need to repeat these messages. This is a whole new group.

0:05:19 – Nina Addeo
Right. I have this one example for a beachfront venue I work with and it was actually me who was resisting because I’m like we’re posting the ceremony space all the time and they said no, no, when we’re doing sales, people say they’re not seeing the ceremony space enough. So you may be thinking if you batch your content calendar and once a month, twice a month, you’re putting in this ceremony space, that’s still not enough, because you want it coming up once a scroll, essentially.

And by that I mean your grid has, you know, let’s say, six to nine posts is your most valuable prospect, your most valuable piece of what you do being showcased, of what you do being showcased. So if you’re not a venue a venue is a really clear example, but maybe it’s that you have an open air photo booth or that you do luxury outdoor kind of tented weddings you want to make sure, kind of within every scroll of that grid, that a couple is going to see that.

0:06:22 – Heidi Thompson
That’s a really good way to think about it and that’s really interesting that they realized that this is the thing that keeps coming up. So I think that’s a really helpful thing to be looking out for. Like, how are you already standing out, what are the things that people are loving, and making sure that you’re putting them, you know, right in front of them because they’re not going to scroll back? You know, a whole year to the last time you posted about that.

0:06:51 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, and the reason why I’ve been able to do this. When I first started I was doing I was, you know, social media was not its own entity, so I was the administrative assistant and marketing manager for a group of venues and because I did the administration work for the sales meetings, I took the minutes so I would hear what the sales people would say. So if you’re noticing a disconnect between your social media and and getting results, I would try to whether it’s somebody else who’s doing it talk to the sales team or have the person doing the social media shadow a sales call or do a tour. Give them a tour as if they’re they’re buying, and that’s when you can really start to learn what couples are asking and looking for and the information they want to see looking for and the information they want to see.

0:07:50 – Heidi Thompson
That is so smart and it’s so simple, but I think we think of these pieces as so disconnected in our business.

0:07:53 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, because whatever also you know, what you really want to know is what’s your biggest obstacle. So maybe the biggest obstacle is you’re a wedding planner and people don’t realize that if they’re getting married at a venue, that they still could use you. So by your social media, knowing what the obstacle is, they can address that in their content and posting. Ooh okay.

0:08:16 – Heidi Thompson
So I’m curious in your work with all sorts of wedding pros that you work with, can you give us some ideas of what some of those obstacles have been that?

0:08:26 – Nina Addeo
you work with. Can you give us some ideas of what some of those obstacles have been? Yeah, so, for example, one venue, their city, is considered out of the way and when people see that on the address they’re just like, nope, that’s a hilly drive. You know I don’t want to take it, my guests don’t want to take it. So, kind of then trying to work well, you know this, this uh want the winding road surrounded by enchanting Hills take you to a private oasis where your wedding exists in a world of its own. You know you kind of want to take it and spin it. Yeah, um, so thinking about what people may be viewing as false and trying to already groom them for why that’s not the case.

0:09:10 – Heidi Thompson
I know you know this, but I guarantee most people aren’t thinking about this. When it comes to their social media, they’re just like, okay, I need to, you know, post a pretty wedding that people are going to like the look of. But this is such a better and more strategic approach that is much more aligned with sales, and I got to say if you were listening to this, I hope you were taking notes. I hope you will implement this, because addressing objections in that way oh my God, is that going to help your sales? That is brilliant.

0:09:44 – Nina Addeo
Another thing to bring up, for you know, we’re talking about engagement season, which is also the holiday season or just the best time, I find, to start selling winter weddings with, at least where I am in the East coast of the United States, winter weddings are harder to sell. This isn’t the case for everybody, but for those businesses, when we start talking about winter weddings in winter people are really caught up in the magic of the season. They’re caught up kind of and I hate to say the global warming, where it’s actually not that cold, so we’re able to get them kind of thinking, you know, oh, so this is, maybe I could have a great wedding this time of year. So when you have your, your times, a year that you find are slower, I find live in that moment, like winter 2024 is the best time to start selling winter 2025.

0:10:41 – Heidi Thompson
That is such a good point and because people are in it it and they can feel like, oh, okay, this is roughly what it would be like. This isn’t too bad, it’s not too cold. I thought it was going to be promoting them before the winter, but you’re not really selling to the person that’s going to be buying from you or getting married in like two months, you know.

0:11:18 – Nina Addeo
Right, right.

And then another way we utilize winter weddings for social media, and here when I say winter weddings, let’s just use it as your most challenging season to book.

So what I’ll work out with some of the wedding brands, whether it’s a venue or a planner, is they’ll give me essentially a winter wedding package and that’s the only package for them where I’m really able to give detailed pricing and to use kind of pricing as the incentive. So all year round, essentially, I’m able to say that if you want to get in at the best price of the year, it’s going to be with this package in these months and then people can apply it for whatever year they want to. But as social media, that’s how I’m able to establish a starting price, using that winter wedding package and letting people know that’s where we’re starting and if that’s where you want to be, then this is the package and time of year you want. And if you want something for couples who then can afford more, then they know all right, I can afford summer at this place, you know. I can afford prime time.

0:12:26 – Heidi Thompson
I love that and it makes so much sense from just a sales perspective of okay, this is a harder lift. You know people aren’t as naturally interested at this time of year, so what can we do to make it more enticing? And then not just have that be something that lives and dies either on your website or in conversations once someone inquires, but using it on the front end? I love that approach.

0:12:57 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, this way, what we want to do with social media is to essentially get you more qualified leads. So if we’re able to use a base package to establish a starting price, this means people who are non-negotiable about that price won’t waste your time.

0:13:16 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, that’s a very good point and we’re definitely seeing data that millennials price transparency is important, but we’re seeing even more with Gen Z. It’s like not even going to inquire if I don’t have any idea of what it’s going to cost.

0:13:34 – Nina Addeo
For sure yeah.

0:13:36 – Heidi Thompson
Okay. So in engagement season, this is the kind of content you want to be posting. You want to be thinking about those objections and weaving those things that you’re hearing in sales conversations in. Now you mentioned there’s this different part about how you’re engaging with couples. Tell me a little bit about that.

0:13:57 – Nina Addeo
So I want you to think when somebody in your area gets engaged, what are the accounts they’re following first? Some of them are going to be really broad, like the Knot or WeddingWire, but some may be specific to you, where maybe it’s you know, Wed Society, Oklahoma, or it’s certain venues and places like that. Those are the areas you want to be kind of checking in on who liking their posts, who’s following them, who’s new to their world, because you want to get them into your world.

0:14:32 – Heidi Thompson
I love that. I love that so much because we forget the social aspect, the search aspect, social media, and we have access to all of this information and just commenting, you know, interacting in some way. It sounds minimal and it is, but it can absolutely lead to more sales.

0:14:56 – Nina Addeo
And another way to do this is with location. So maybe your area has this tree lighting all the couples go to or they have some sort of winter wonderland wine event or things like that. Where are couples going to during the holidays. So I remember when I was younger whenever somebody had a new boyfriend they would go to this like plaza tree and they would check in and post about it. So that’s where couples in my area or venues in my area I’d be checking in at that tree to see who’s posting their couple shot there. Because that’s my audience, the couples so kind of thinking of those rite of passage places or, as we talk about other times a year, the couples that go to the pumpkin patches, right, like, where are those pumpkin patches they’re going to? Because every couple takes their little photo there and that’s how you can easily find them.

0:15:56 – Heidi Thompson
What sorts of things are you doing to interact with them?

0:16:01 – Nina Addeo
So it can be leaving a genuine comment. You know if they’re at a nice location you could say, oh, we love visiting there. I don’t. I don’t sell in the comment, because ideally your profile should be optimized enough that they know who you are and hopefully your handle indicates who you are too, in your photo, for example. For me it’s easy. It says I do wedding marketing. So whenever I comment on a venue’s post or anybody, they know. They know what I’m doing. So if your profile is you know Melbourne wedding planners, they know you’re a wedding planner. So just leaving a genuine comment is enough. Or if I can’t think of any comments, I’ll just like their most recent three posts, and you can only do this with public accounts. So it’s only something you can do with those who are approving and essentially welcoming the public interactions on the platform.

0:16:57 – Heidi Thompson
It’s a good way to think about it, because if you do have a public account, that is exactly what you’re doing and I think as long as, like you said, you’re not selling, you’re not being weird, you’re not being like invasive in any way, like it’s fine, just be human.

0:17:15 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, especially as you do this, and you’ll know you’re doing it right, because you’ll start to find engagement photos, you’ll start to find couples who are posting about their engagement. So that’s an easy comment, where you like it. And what I’ll comment on is the proposal itself, saying just you know what a what a thoughtful place to have your proposal. What a romantic idea you know. Or a thoughtful place to have your proposal, what a romantic idea you know. Or I’ve always dreamed of a Disney proposal. I hope you’re having the time of your life. You know, whatever it is, just leaning into the special time they’re in in their life.

0:17:50 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, yeah, that makes so much sense. So is there anything else you want people to be thinking about during, specifically, engagement season, whether it’s interacting with people or with the content?

0:18:06 – Nina Addeo
specifically, so leaving you know, just to summarize those most important messages of of what you want people to know about what you do. And you know, let’s get pivot into the holidays. If you have past holiday weddings, now is the time to post them. If you’re the venue you want to be showing how your venue decorates for the holiday or how others have decorated it, but you do, now is a great time to really get that holiday content out and getting interaction on it and what sorts of things are you posting for your clients during the holiday season?

0:18:49 – Heidi Thompson
Because I think it could be. We’re so in the moment in our business. I think it could be really easy to be thinking about. Oh okay, if I have a venue or if I’m a photographer, I’m going to be talking about photographing a big family Christmas party at this venue. But our lead time is so much longer in this industry.

0:19:19 – Nina Addeo
Yes, so I always start with Christmas in July. That’s when I first introduced Christmas for the upcoming year. So in July 2024, I’m talking about Christmas 2024, and that will maybe just be one to two posts. You know, and and I’ll, maybe I’ll pin it if I’m trying to book corporate holiday parties, because that’s something I want people to know about. So if you’re a photographer, a photo booth or if you do corporate in any way, I’ll let that kind of come back up a little more or pin it, and then after that I’ll weave it in again before Halloween, not totally taking Halloween’s thunder, but weaving it in. And then you know after Halloween, because you really do have to start in October, because right after Halloween you’re already in November, so you’re already going to need those things booked Holidays. Do get more last-minute bookings, do get more last minute bookings, but really July is when you want to start rolling that out and having your packages and messaging ready for it.

0:20:24 – Heidi Thompson
Okay, that’s really good to keep in mind, because it’s so easy for us to get stuck in like that moment of time that we forget about the lead time, especially in the event space. Like people are booking events, you know, maybe for corporate, a few months before, but, like you know, a year, two years in advance.

0:20:48 – Nina Addeo
Yes, and even you know a photographer client. They decided very last minute to add holiday sessions and I didn’t get the material until Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving was late this year it’s at the end of November. So there just wasn’t enough time to get a turnaround from it because we were now exclusively marketing to last minute. You know family photos. You know like it would only apply to people who miss the boat and they may not have the last-minute funds to invest in doing the shoot. It made it a lot harder. You really want to start putting that out as soon as possible.

Really, I would say July, because that’s when you’re going to get the people who are ahead of schedule. Look, if you’re booking people this year, you want to book them for next year. Now you know when you deliver before they leave. Ideally you want to be booking for next year and offering an incentive. Maybe you hold the price if they book it now.

0:21:47 – Heidi Thompson
So, working around that way, yeah, brings in the question of how far in advance are you planning things out? Because I know for me and my clients if there are periods where it’s like okay, I know I’m going to focus on this, I think that’s great to have on your calendar, but we don’t really get into detail until we get into that like 90 day period of like OK, I need to be doing exactly these specific things over the next week in order to actually get there. So what is your planning look like?

0:22:28 – Nina Addeo
You know, a lot of it is because the social media does need to be fluid, because we don’t know, especially, let’s say, you’re doing a holiday event, so we don’t know until like three, two weeks before how that booking is really looking. Oh, that rhymes, sorry. So you know, sometimes it’s pivoting and realizing wow, we need to put out more promotions for this upcoming, you know, showcase or event or holiday party in these next two weeks, and being willing to move things around and change them around. But as soon as the material is available, so you want to give people enough time to plan. So I it’s hard to say, cause it’s like you never can be too soon. You always have that information out and as soon as it’s ready you want to put it out, and then you don’t have to repeat the messaging until it becomes more seasonally appropriate.

So let’s say look, if you have your Mother’s Day banquet you’re doing ready now, you don’t really need you can, I’ll create. Okay, here’s the nitty gritty of what I’ll do. If they have it ready now, I’ll create the Facebook event for it now. So people who want to put it in their calendar can. But I’m not going to start actively promoting it on social media, probably until after Valentine’s Day or Easter. So that’s more of like a calendar example of what I’d be doing.

0:23:53 – Heidi Thompson
That makes sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I think that’s helpful to have like that tangible like okay, I know I want to do something for this period in time, but like maybe there’s minimal things I can do right now, but I want to make sure I have, you know that time set aside to be able to, you know, put that promotion together.

0:24:12 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, and if you have it ready, because the people who are looking for it want to be able to find it. So the people who, whether you do proposal planning, whatever it is, you know the people who want to look for that need a place to find it if you have it ready. So having it live someplace whether, like I was saying, I do a Facebook event or you have it on the website somewhere isn’t a bad thing. You just don’t want to cloud your most important messaging with stuff that may not yet be relevant.

0:24:42 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, it’s kind of like the heads up but not the. We’re going to give you all the information and sell you on it at this point. Right, right, okay, all right, so that’s engagement season, that’s the holidays. Engagement season, that’s the holidays. Now there is the ever present problem in our industry of and then I get into doing the weddings, then I get into, you know, the heavy client work period. When your clients are in that sort of stage, what are you doing in terms of social that sort of stage.

0:25:18 – Nina Addeo
What are you doing in terms of social?

That’s when it’s most important to be on the platform itself, because that’s where I’m going to be getting a lot of the interaction and content, and what I mean by that is the photographers are going to be collaborating on reels or they’re going to be messaging us some previews that they took, or people are going to be checking in and the bride and groom they’re going to be messaging us some previews that they took, or people are going to be checking in and the bride and groom themselves are going to be posting things. So even if you’re not, if you don’t have the capacity to be posting live every day, that’s expected and fine, but you do want to be on the weekends checking the account so you don’t miss those stories and timely messages. And for your content, this may be a good time to lean on more of your evergreen content posting stuff that in advance that you know will apply at any time. So this is just generic beautiful weddings you’ve done, reviews, information about your services, stuff. That is not that you could be posting any time of year.

0:26:24 – Heidi Thompson
I like that and I like that. You are giving people kind of an easy, you know crutch to lean on a little bit. You know, like it’s stuff you already have. It’s content that may already exist. Maybe you’re repurposing it, maybe you’re using it in a different way, maybe not, maybe you’re just straight up reposting it, but you are making your life easier, which I’m always a fan of.

0:26:52 – Nina Addeo
Because that will be your evergreen stuff. And then really the user-generated content of the reels, collaborations, the stories, that’s what’s going to be kind of your selling of what you’re doing now, without you having to put in that work beyond checking it, when maybe you’re waiting online or a commercial break or you know you’re microwaving something. I’m saying because what I’m trying to lean into here is I know how busy you are, right, but just taking the three minutes here or there where you can find it to check in on the account, acknowledge those stories and see those messages.

0:27:33 – Heidi Thompson
How do you make the most of user generated content? Because you know, maybe we get tagged in something, maybe we get, you know, a collaborator invite on something, but I’m sure there’s so much more you can do with that yeah, I mean the first thing I want to do, because let’s say, let’s say you’re doing the three minute approach, you’re microwaving a Hot Pocket, you got 90 seconds right. I love this.

0:27:58 – Nina Addeo
I love this structure and you see a nice post that you were tagged in that you’re going to want to repurpose, save it. Make sure you bookmark that and save it, because then what’s going to happen is I go to sit down and I go on to my client’s page and I go to those bookmarks and look at all the saved posts and then I start creating based on that. So if what I saved is from a photographer, I don’t like to alter their, their posts. Um, what I’ll do first is I’ll ask them if they’re willing to share the album access.

Um, sometimes the brides don’t have the capacity to send me it or know how to, and they’re fine with me just saving it. So what I’ll do is I’ll use a site it’s called Inflact I-N-F-L-A-C-T and you put in the Instagram link or even TikTok you know links work and it will download all the images or the video for you. So this way you get the nice looking file of it and you can repurpose it and use it. So then that’s where I’ll use those saves that I’ve had to post.

0:29:14 – Heidi Thompson
I love how simple that is and I love that it fits within a hot pocket.

0:29:19 – Nina Addeo
Yes, the hot pocket approach.

0:29:24 – Heidi Thompson
So that is the content. There’s a lot of user generated stuff during this period. How are you engaging with couples during this period? Is it mostly with the current clients? Are you still finding engaged couples to interact with?

0:29:41 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, they’re always going to be engaged couples, which is great, and what I’ll do is let’s say there’s a bride you know it could be one of your own brides and she posts the wedding and you’re tagged. I like to check if all the people who left her comments congratulating her Look when a bride posts, or groom, when anybody posts a wedding it could even be when the mother of the bride posts anybody. When they post about the wedding, they’re getting that’s going to be their most popular post. They’re getting like hundreds of likes. They’re getting hundreds of comments and look, couples are friends with other couples, so I like to engage within their friends and who’s congratulating them and commenting on them, and that’s how I’m able to find these other couples who are who are either congratulating their friends or I’ll go to venues location tags on on Instagram specifically.

So I’ll go to what area you work. Let’s say you’re in the Hamptons. I’d go to a popular Hamptons location and see who’s checking in there and you’ll start to notice every couple at a wedding takes like a photo together, you know, and then they post it. So I’ll start interacting with them there and so I’m taking advantage of the busy season to kind of find the wedding guests who are about to be the couple of honor themselves, that’s so smart.

I love that it sounds so sneaky when I, but I just want to reiterate these are people with public profiles. You’re not going to be able to find people with private profiles and when you go to the location tag, you know you don’t even have to filter out and see You’re only seeing public accounts. So that can be the most time effective way to find people.

0:31:34 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and you’re not being annoying, you’re not being like a creep, you’re not like being super salesy, You’re just yeah, like.

0:31:41 – Nina Addeo
Don’t message them seven times yeah please don’t, don’t.

In terms of the kind of phases of the seasons that we have in the industry. What else are you looking at and what are you thinking about during those times? You know a lot of it is where people physically are and are going. So, like I mentioned before, you know during fall they’re all doing the pumpkin picking and trying to stay on brand with that and, aligned with that. During the summer they’re going to the wineries or doing maybe bachelorette things and the beaches and things like that.

And look, you want to be selling your services for any time of year, but as far as getting engagement right like Christmas content, for example, is more popular in November and December. So while you still can allude to that and maybe have a cheeky post saying like this heat has us missing, you know the winter you don’t want to be going heavy on winter and summer. You want to be staying with where people are inspired. It’s kind of like we were saying earlier. I think a summer couple is going to get their best inspiration during the summer and when they’re attending summer events and getting summer ideas. So you want to stay on par with that. That makes a lot of sense. You want to stay on par with that.

0:33:16 – Heidi Thompson
That makes a lot of sense when it comes to your clients. What sorts of calls to action are you using? How are you moving people to the next step?

0:33:34 – Nina Addeo
I like to be pretty aggressive. I would say, you know some may disagree that it’s not that aggressive because I guess it’s not. Say you know some, some may disagree that it’s not that aggressive because I guess it’s not. But I’ll. I’ll use chat GPT for hooks and I’ll say you know you want to keep it location specific because as much as it is to have, you know, a reel that goes viral, you want to be getting leads from this, not just likes, right? So I’m always thinking about uh, for example, not just likes. So I’m always thinking about, for example, let’s do a venue example when you realize you can get married at a beachfront venue under an hour from New York City. So that’s how I’m working in the amenity of it being beachfront and the location saying it’s right outside of New York City.

Trying to bring in some other examples of saying you know when you can relax on your wedding day because you hired, you know, an expert planner. You know things like that, where you’re kind of being a little funny and cheeky and you can get this inspiration from anywhere, any type of account. It doesn’t just have to be wedding accounts. If you need a more specific example, so let’s say you’re based in New York. I would check out you know what vendors of your category are doing maybe in California or Texas or other major areas, and get inspiration there. If you don’t need to be industry specific and you’re a bit more creative, look at just what other industries are doing. You know I’m really interested in books, so I’m always getting, like inspiration from book content creators. Or I like to watch the real estate people on social media. They have a lot of clever stuff, so then I’ll take what they’re doing and apply it to weddings and that’s how I’m getting those sales ideas.

0:35:18 – Heidi Thompson
I love doing that too. The yeah, if you go into another space looking for okay, how could I use this, how could I apply it Like, oh my God, you’re going to have infinite ideas.

0:35:32 – Nina Addeo
And then bookmark those, the hot pocket theory, you know. Bookmark those so when you are creating content you have all those saved in one place, so you can really just kind of shoot them out one after the other.

0:35:45 – Heidi Thompson
Do your clients get a lot of their couples taking the next step by going into like a DM conversation, or are they being sent off platform?

0:35:58 – Nina Addeo
They’re being sent off platform, and that’s more so because, as the social media manager, I’m not the salesperson. So for most clients who have outsourced their social media, they’re not on it. So I want to get them into their sales funnel, which is off the social media. If you are the person on the Instagram, then you may want to keep them on platform or that may be fine for you, but in my instances I have to. My major analytic is the website clicks. So that’s what I want to be gearing everybody towards.

0:36:34 – Heidi Thompson
And are you like directing to link in bio or using any kind of comment automation?

0:36:41 – Nina Addeo
We’re not using comment automation. Sometimes it will be, like you know, because there is this kind of myth I don’t know if it’s true or not, but you’re always proceeding with caution that if you say link in bio, instagram doesn’t like that, because they know you are directing people off the platform.

0:37:00 – Heidi Thompson
So forbidden phrase.

0:37:02 – Nina Addeo
Yes. So instead I’ll say let’s talk and then do a computer emoji. You know, and that’s pretty. That indicates you know most people. They’re savvy at this age with the internet and social media. They know how to get to your website. They know how to get more information. So I’ll just come up with different ways of saying it. I’ll, you know, contact us now to get a prime selection of dates before you know, peak engagement season. You know, contact us now. We only have, you know, so many weekends left in 2025. Or you know whether you’re using a scarcity tactic or a special promotion or just saying let’s get in touch, I want to talk. Talk to me, damn it media manager.

0:38:03 – Heidi Thompson
If, say, you do get a DM and you know you need to transition this into an inquiry through the website, how are you doing that? In a way that’s I see a lot of times it’s like you know shut down the conversation. Quite robotic about it.

0:38:12 – Nina Addeo
Right? Well, number one is I’m not going to lose the customer, so what I’ll do is I’ll say you know, congratulations, thanks so much for being in touch. You can reach our sales team directly at the website or, if you prefer, if you provide me with your email address and or phone number, I’ll have them reach out to you. So I do provide the link, but I also, if they’re messaging me. It could be they don’t want to do the contact form and I don’t want to use them for the venue. So I will offer to have someone get in touch with them too, because what’s most important is that we maintain this lead.

0:38:52 – Heidi Thompson
That is really important and I think a lot of people you know. If you’re forcing people into that one way, you like to bring leads in, I mean you’re going to lose people. So I like having that different option of like let me take that work on, let us contact you and have that conversation, instead of you having to go through that Because if you wanted to, you probably would have.

0:39:19 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, and sometimes it’s as simple. So once I tell them you know, only whoever it is, only Cynthia has access to the dates you know. It could be that simple. I would love to help you, but I don’t have access to the dates. I’m going to put you in touch with Cynthia, who does you know whatever it is you have to say to make them understand why you’re transitioning them off of messaging.

0:39:44 – Heidi Thompson
That’s a really important point of just anything If you want to get someone to do something there are so many interesting studies on this in behavioral psychology Like people will let you cut in front of them excuse me, in line, if you give them literally any reason, including because I just want to go in front of you, they’re still more likely to let you do it than if you didn’t give a reason, which underlines just the importance of giving people a reason of why you’re doing the thing. And then they’re like oh yeah, absolutely, that makes sense.

0:40:23 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, yeah. So you know, just giving it’s like it’s not that I’m just trying to be difficult or get you to give your email address.

0:40:30 – Heidi Thompson
Right.

0:40:31 – Nina Addeo
You know it’s that. I just can’t help you.

0:40:35 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and I think that is received so much better than just kind of like the oh well, you have to go through our website. If you want to talk to us, you have to go through our website, because then that comes off as just like why are you trying to shove me in that direction? That feels combative, you know, or?

0:40:56 – Nina Addeo
look, if you do have to do that, let’s say for whatever reason. I then like to say, for the fastest response, I’m going to need you to fill out the contact form. This is the way you’re going to get in touch quickly and with the most information. So I kind of give them reason, like you said, give a reason why. So that could be about the speed and about the information they’re going to be able to receive.

0:41:21 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, it’s funny, but we just want to know why people are telling us to do stuff. It’s so simple, but it will get you better results. Yeah, yeah. So are there any? I’m sure we could talk for hours about this but are there any issues? You see people or any mistakes you see people run into when it comes to, you know, trying to make the most of the current season on their social media posting stuff that doesn’t relate at all.

0:41:59 – Nina Addeo
I guess, like you know, if you want to go, some people will just go to Pinterest and just find anything, but it doesn’t look like your region, you know, it doesn’t look like your venue. If you’re a venue, so you want to be finding stuff that still relates to to where you are, because if you’ve got these big evergreen trees, but I know that’s not in that area, it can kind of misdirect people.

0:42:27 – Heidi Thompson
That is a really good point. Something I’ve seen and I’m curious your thoughts on this. I’ve seen people create like or take from somewhere on the internet Super, super generic graphics about like any witch holiday, like ones that maybe we don’t pay a ton of attention to. They’re more like bank holidays. And then you scroll through their feed and it’s just kind of full of these weird like happy flag day, happy this bank holiday, that bank holiday that’s somebody who knows they should post, but they have no idea what to post.

0:43:08 – Nina Addeo
So they’ve gone to a calendar and have just looked for every occasion they could. I remember gosh and years ago, when that was first really getting popular, it would be like oh, today’s National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, so we have to talk about our chocolate chip cookie exit station and you know, as you learn your content, pillars or what to post. You know you don’t need to do that anymore. Or show a photo from a service you’ve done and put the happy flag day in the caption. You know, for any holiday I show either a photo of the planner, of the venue, of of something, and and put the message in the caption. And I don’t even do hashtags or anything with those and they do great because people just want to connect on more.

So, on the important holidays I don’t know if Flag Day is going to do it, but you know I’d rather you work on your, your more evergreen content and messaging. You can use chat GPT to do it. Give chat GPT enough information about you. So these can be really more specific posts that will have impact. But I think that’s a better strategy than just pulling pulling those type of generic holiday photos, because what it’s going to do is it’s also going to date you and show that you’re a bit out of touch with the current marketing trends.

0:44:41 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, I mean there are. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone comment on something or like something or start following me, and I look at their feed and it’s a dead giveaway because, like, okay, it’s December and your last post was about the 4th of July like okay, it’s December and your last post was about the 4th of July.

0:45:05 – Nina Addeo
Yes, yes, so it’s. You’re able to tell really quickly that way. That’s so true. Sometimes I’ll even you know once an event has passed and it had clouded my feed while I was trying to promote it. I’ll keep one of them just for like reference, but the rest I’ll archive and get rid of. You don’t need eight posts about your holiday party event after it’s passed.

0:45:23 – Heidi Thompson
That’s a really good point, like just because it’s there doesn’t mean it needs to stay there, right, right, how are you integrating stories into this? Are you using that for more of the you know the on the fly, more this is what’s happening today, kind of thing?

0:45:40 – Nina Addeo
I use it more for when, whenever I have something, you know that that has a where I want people to go to the link. You know I’m putting that link in there as much as I can because in the stories that’s the only place a post is going to have a clickable link on Instagram. So let’s say you’re hosting a New Year’s Eve event or you’re going to be at a bridal showcase and you want people to sign up, post it to your stories, even if you’re just resharing your post about it to stories, and put that link, because once you make it that much easier for somebody, they may actually do it because they’ll see your post. They may not want to click somewhere else to go and find it. So when you post it again in stories, it makes clicking that link so much easier. So I’ll try to post any past stories or any past content I’ve done. I’ll go in and post them with links to the website because I want to try to get people to actually click and go.

0:46:42 – Heidi Thompson
That makes a lot of sense and you’ve mentioned chat GPT a couple times. I’ll be sure to link to your chat GPT training in the show notes yeah yeah, it’s so useful, oh my god if you guys are not using it. It’s so useful, oh my God If you guys are not using it once it gets to know you and your voice.

0:47:02 – Nina Addeo
It’s like magic, it’s. It’s freaky because it really does become like an employee. It’s amazing.

0:47:07 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, it is. It’s like my favorite thing. Anytime I get stuck, I’m like all right time to fire that up?

0:47:13 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, absolutely.

0:47:16 – Heidi Thompson
Nina, if someone wants to learn more about what you do work with you, where should they go to contact you?

0:47:25 – Nina Addeo
Yeah, go to idoweddingmarketing.com, fill out the contact form and we can talk about your business what’s working, what isn’t and start talking.

0:47:35 – Heidi Thompson
Thank you so much for doing this. This was great. And start talking. Thank you so much for doing this. This was great. This is a really interesting way of thinking about social media, because I think a lot of people just think of it as this constant thing. That’s always the same, but of course, seasons happen and we’re in such a seasonal industry that you do have to adapt your approach. So thank you so much for being here to adapt your approach.

0:47:58 – Nina Addeo
Thank you, heidi, it was a lot of fun.

0:48:00 – Heidi Thompson
Okay, we just covered a lot with Nina, so I have links for you over in the show notes so you could learn more from her at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/317. I want to hear what ideas this has brought up for you. Has this given you any aha moments? Has it given you any? Oh, that’s what I need to be doing with my social media.

Send me a DM. I always love hearing from listeners of the podcast. I am @evolveyourweddingbusiness over on Instagram. Yes, I genuinely want to hear from you and I want to know what ideas have popped into your head, because we talked about so many different ways of thinking about your social media content and coming up with ideas that are going to work for you. I have a feeling you probably have a lot brewing in your head and I want to hear all about it. All right, my friend, thank you so much for taking the time to tune in today. I will speak to you again very soon.

About Nina Addeo

Nina Addeo is the owner of I Do Wedding Marketing, a social media marketing agency specific to the wedding industry. Addeo’s in-house experience with venues fueled her passion and her knowledge of the event industry, allowing her to market to the specific pain points, processes, and performance metrics that are exclusive to wedding professionals.

Nina Addeo is celebrating over 10 years of social media marketing experience specifically for wedding professionals. (Not bad when you consider Instagram is 13-years-old!) With her education in Speech Communications and Rhetorical Studies, Addeo uses her expertise in the art of language and performance to articulate social media best practices in her speaking engagements.

Website: idoweddingmarketing.com
Instagram: @idoweddingmarketing

---

Links & Resources:

The Wedding Business Collective
ChatGPT for Wedding Marketing
Inflact
Book More Weddings With Social Media Engagement w/ Emma Barrera

Want more? To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below and be sure to leave a review:

Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes (You’ll just need to click the blue “View In iTunes” button and then click the Subscribe button when your iTunes opens.)

Click Here to Subscribe via Stitcher

And please take 2 minutes to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking here. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes immensely! Thank you – I appreciate it!