Here is a transcript generated by otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with Olga Alejandre Dorado, global social media manager and YouTube creator:

Carlota Pico 0:14
Hi everyone, I’m Carlota Pico from The Content Mix, and I’m excited to be here today with Olga Alejandre Dorado, who is foodspring’s former social media content coordinator, and has over four years of experience in marketing and communications. Olga, welcome to The Content Mix, and thank you so much for joining us today.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 0:35
Hi Carlota, thank you so much. I’m super excited for this interview. So let’s go with it.

Carlota Pico 0:42
Wonderful. So let’s just jump straight into the interview then. Olga, could you tell me a little bit about your background, your experience and where you are today?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 0:52
Of course, well, first of all, I studied public relationships and advertising, and started working in Madrid in Spain as a community manager, social media manager, and like did a lot of things. Because you know, at first when you start these kind of things, you do like everything, no? And I started at Gympass, which is a brand that is focused on gyms across Europe. And started with the Spanish market, but we also developed strategies for Italy, for Germany, and then we opened more countries. Afterwards, I found foodspring of course, and decided to move to Berlin to live there because they have their company there. And I joined as community manager at first, community manager Spain. So we started building the brand and starting with the social media, Facebook, Instagram, and afterwards it started developing. So I changed from community manager to social media manager, which was more kind of related to content, in terms of creating the content for those brands, analyzing what worked, what didn’t, etc. And afterwards, I was moved to be like the coordinator of the content on all platforms, social media platforms, like Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, of all markets in Europe. So we had like six markets, which is like Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, and UK, which started afterwards. And yeah, from there, we developed like a huge strategy of content which afterwards changed in the coronavirus content, that we will talk about afterwards. And nowadays, I decided to move back to Spain because I missed it after two years in Berlin, and I started founding my channel, my YouTube channel, and creating content on my own.

Carlota Pico 2:57
Awesome. Well, what an exciting background, and yes, I agree with you, Spain is fantastic. I’m from Madrid myself. So I do… the sun, the people, the lifestyle. I mean, I am biased of course.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 3:14
Yeah, I know. Berlin is awesome, I have to say. But it’s true, you’re with me. It’s like the family, sun…

Carlota Pico 3:23
I mean, home is home. But Berlin is an awesome city. It’s one of my favorite cities in Europe. So let’s talk a little bit about foodspring. foodspring is a premium fitness food, which is a semi-crowded space. What actions did you take across your social media networks to attract a larger audience to your brand, considering that the product is a product that is constantly advertised to different publics in different ways?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 3:53
Yeah, of course. Well, first of all, we started with something that I think it’s crucial, which is like knowing your audience in social media—which is of course totally different to the audience that could be like on the ground, no? So the ones, because our target is mainly online, we don’t have like a shop in Spain or a shop in Italy where people can buy. So everything needs to go online, and the communication of the product and the ingredients, characteristics, etc. is very different to the one that could be from a B2B company. That’s why we, first of all, did a lot of interviews with a lot of people from our social media channels. We did a lot of email marketing, started knowing our audience, we also made a lot of calls with the people to kind of understand which kind of needs did they have, which kind of products did they like, and of course, which kind of communication did they need? Because with these products that are like food, that involves everything about the physics and like the physical appearance, it’s really complicated. So you need to understand how to communicate it, and what to tell the people. So after that it’s true that we did like a kind of, we had like a content that was spread between countries. So I was social media manager Spain and our content was totally different to the one that we were doing in France, in Italy or Germany, because of course, they are different countries. But it’s true that afterwards, when you want to go like a little bit up, like to alert your audience, as you say, we started also growing as a brand. So you need to kind of merge that. But you don’t need to forget that the countries are different. That’s why I was in charge of the coordination of the content. And what we did was building a communication plan that was based for all countries, but has like specific changes for each country. So for example, I don’t know, if we were going to launch a product, a protein, a new flavor of protein. Of course the communication is the same mainly, like for example, the same ingredients we want to target, or the same header, the same claim. But when communicating to it, we would change maybe the date. For example, if in Spain, it was like hotter, maybe we need to target the audience like, “Hey, you can drink it with ice” or depend on, I don’t know, it’s an example. But of course, you need to have like a clear image of the brand, of the whole brand. So people can go from one channel to another channel, and they don’t see it’s a totally different running each country. But still, it’s not the same, of course, in all countries, it is adapted to it. So I think that’s important. And also of course, which is crucial now, it’s influencer marketing. I think it’s a great tool for building and developing a brand and growing. It’s really like, if you know which are your audience, who’s your audience and the target you need to target, it’s mainly like, influencer marketing can get you there. Yeah.

Carlota Pico 7:04
Okay, very interesting. From what I’m hearing is that you conducted surveys and then used those surveys to build stories, stories that were addressing different audiences. So basically, your approach was global, but your stories were local, like glocal—go global, but act local.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 7:23
Yeah.

Carlota Pico 7:27
Amazing. So as a spin-off question, how did your team measure the impact that those actions had across foodspring’s channels?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 7:36
We had like different KPIs, because of course, you need to have the revenue in mind, of course, but it’s true—when being on marketing and social media, you cannot measure everything by revenue. Because of course, it was very difficult for example, from the influencer marketing campaigns we were doing, it was very difficult to measure that on like, just revenue or coupons or things like that. That’s why we decided also to have like some KPIs like, for example, the number of followers, you know, social media, number of impressions in the stories, or number of swipe-ups in the stories, because that also gives you the idea how much people is interested in the content you’re communicating. So of course, like we had different KPIs depending also on each platform. For example, any Instagram was sometimes followers, sometimes likes, sometimes saves in the photo. Or in Facebook, it would change, maybe it would be like content share. Then on TikTok, we just started on TikTok, but you can see mainly followers also, or I don’t know, like creation of new content from the audiences. So of course you have to have, like the typical KPIs. Google Analytics also is a really good tool for that. You need to know which kind of pages and links people are clicking, and afterwards, of course, have like a KPI for each social media network. Because you cannot measure Instagram the way you measure YouTube, or the way you measure Facebook; it’s totally different.

Carlota Pico 9:12
Absolutely, absolutely. So which social media campaigns have you admired lately, and why? Along those same lines, obviously. Because, of course, if there are social media campaigns that you admired, it’s probably a social media campaign that many people from across the world have also admired. So I’d like to zoom into that example.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 9:33
Yeah, of course. Well recently, like yesterday I think, I was checking the social media campaigns that a lot of brands are doing because of the Black Lives Matter campaign, if I have to say it in that way or… movement, yeah. And I was checking of course Adidas and Nike, and both of them, I think they did a great job on that. Because it’s true, for example, I think Adidas communicated a bit afterwards. Because you also have to be very present in the moment with the campaigns. You need to do it like right on time. But it’s true Adidas just did it like yesterday, and I felt like, hm, maybe it’s too late, no? Like as a big brand as they are, maybe it’s too late, but they communicated very well because they had like, clear targets of things they want to do. For example, they were saying they will include 30% of black people into every country, into every Adidas shop. And Nike also did something similar, but they had like clear actions. So I think that’s very important in campaigns, because sometimes it’s just words or really nice things. For example, Netflix also has very, very nice advertising with new series and things like that. When they launched Sex Education, they did an amazing job, because I think in Spain actually, they were posting some like wallpapers around the city, with kind of sentences that were like funny but also referring to some like sexual quotes. So you could, you had like a double understanding, no? So that’s very clever, but I think like campaigns that really change people is the ones that have also like a point of action, like Nike was doing or Adidas is doing. So they have like some really target of okay, yes, this is what we are, like, communicating, but where do we want to go from there?

Carlota Pico 11:41
Right. So what I understand, that when it comes to campaigns on social media, what’s really important is for brands, not only to talk the talk, but also to show with words that they’re walking the walk. That they’re ready to get their hands dirty, and put some of those words into actions, because that’s what’s going to create impact and that’s what’s going to create change.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 12:05
Exactly. And if you can check or see how people react to that, or even show them how you’re going to do it, or if you already started doing it, if you have gone like a step farther, it’s much better, because it’s not just talk, it’s action.

Carlota Pico 12:22
Yeah, actions speak much more than words do, obviously. Okay. Well, in 1997, speaking about words and actions, Bill Gates coined the now trending phrase “Content is king.” Taking into consideration your role—or your former role, excuse me—as social media content coordinator for foodspring, what would you consider separates good content from great content on a social network? And I’m assuming that this response will also go in line with your previous answer, in which you said that it’s all about actions. It’s all about transmitting to your audience that you care about them, and that you care about the world, and the impact that your brand is going to have on their audience.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 13:16
Of course. I think content is really like, why? Because nowadays we have a lot of content and internet and social media. And you have to, you need to have like different kinds of content. So for example, as in foodspring, we’d measure the content in three steps of the funnel. So we have like awareness content, which is the content that goes like to everyone that you want to raise your brand, or to talk about your brand in general terms. Then we have like conversion content, which is the content that goes directly focused on a product, or to just like, get an impulse on buying or things like that. So you have like a clear action, it could be like the campaigns, no? And then we have engagement content, which is content just to be fun, to talk, to engage with the people, these kind of things. So of course, you need to have different types of content. Because inside the content, you cannot just do like things. You’re going to be doing actions all day, but you also need to convert, but you also need to engage. So I think the key for that and “content is king,” is because you have different types of content. You can change them between platforms, and of course, adapt them to the platforms. You would never go on TikTok with a video from Facebook. That’s like, nowadays we understand it and it seems super easy to understand. But for example, at first we did it on foodspring. We used the same content on Facebook, and then on Instagram, and then we check that it doesn’t make sense, because it can work—some companies can work. But at the end, it’s not like what people are looking on Instagram is not what they are looking for on Facebook. So of course, you need to adapt the content to each channel and have different types of content that the audience can relate to.

Carlota Pico 15:13
Right. And by content you’re referring, obviously, to written content, but also images and videos of course.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 15:19
All kind of content, you need to have everything, kind of everything. If it’s like a video, perfect. Also like photo, stop motion now it’s getting into it. Everything, and you have to be really present. Of course, you also need to have the moment content, no? Like the things about, for example, Oreo when they did like this castle, with the Game of Thrones. Have you seen it?

Carlota Pico 15:44
Yeah.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 15:45
That was clever, very clever. Then all the brands did it again. Or yeah, tried to do it in their own ways. But you need to be very, very present in the moment because if something comes, or like a social movement with Black Lives Matter, you need to respond to that, because people will be demanding it, it’s like the trend. So of course you need to have the resources to also be answering to that question of the people, no? Like okay, what are you doing for this, or what are your thoughts about this?

Carlota Pico 16:17
Right. What about…because of your experience in social media, I do want to pick your brain about virality. How do you make content go viral? That’s always like, the biggest challenge for all brands is to get their content out to as many people as possible and yet so many, and yet so little brands actually are able to achieve that.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 16:40
Yeah, that’s true. That’s the big, big question of all times. Well, it also depends of course, as I say, on the platform. It’s really, like now on TikTok, it’s super easy to go viral as soon as you do something that is creative. It’s not as easy as that on Instagram, for example, because it’s too crowded already, or Facebook, YouTube also, it depends. I think it’s again about the moment of the content, because if you are present, if you’re on time with something, if you’re creative, you can reach a lot of people because they will be talking about it. So they will be researching about that topic. So it’s easier to go viral. But also I would say you need people to communicate it. I will go back again to influencer marketing. We had like a very, very tight relationship between social media team and influencer marketing team. Because of course, that won’t, like influencer marketing, it’s also voices of the people. People follow influencers because they love them, they like them, and of course it works. So if you have like a good content and then you know how to move it around the networks, I think it will go viral easily.

Carlota Pico 17:54
What about if you don’t have the cash to rely on influencers? Do you have any tips for some founders or for entrepreneurs who are just launching their companies now, and don’t have that amount of money in their budgets to hire Kim Kardashian, for example, to promote their brand?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 18:16
Totally. Well of course you have like different kinds of influencers. Nowadays we also have micro-influencers, which are until, we would say, 10k. And of course those ones are also good voices, and I think they are even better. Like nowadays you also need to go around micro-influencers or people that are very close to the people, and they are not very big ones because of course, nowadays we know that the big ones are already advertising. So it’s not as before that we used to see them and say, “ah, they are wearing this T-shirt, of course it’s because they like them.” No—nowadays we know it’s because they are promoting it, and they are paid by it. So of course micro-influencers, they don’t have that saturation of advertising, and people doesn’t know that they’re like, they could be paid or behind a brand, let’s say this way. So it’s also easier to to follow along with them. And of course to those ones normally you don’t need like to pay them, you just need to give them the product. And also it’s like the other way, because for us in foodspring we couldn’t do it, as it’s food. But for example, jewelry, or clothes, or these kind of brands, they can also supply the goods. Then you don’t have like an agreement, because let’s say it this way; if you pay them you have like kind of contracts, so they will need to do, I don’t know, two stories per month or two posts per month. But if you supply it, so you give them free the product, they can choose, no? If you supply them and they like the, I don’t know, the rings or the earrings or something, they can do it as a story free for you. So that sometimes works, sometimes it doesn’t work. But if for you it’s not a problem to give the product, it’s a good way of marketing.

Carlota Pico 20:03
Right, absolutely. I actually used to work in the Maldives, and I was invited to one of the luxury resorts that the Maldives is home to. And one of the reasons that I was invited there is not because I’m an influencer, because I am not an influencer, I don’t have that type of traffic. But I was creating a marketing piece about ultra-luxury resorts in the Maldives, as part of their marketing strategy was, in fact, to invite influencers who had over 100,000 followers to the resort. And it was a freebie, at the end of the day, it was a barter. Come to the Maldives, I’ll pay for everything, I’ll expense your trip, and I’ll invite you to my ultra-luxury resort, and in exchange, post photos and videos and content across your social media network. And they agreed that it was one of the best strategies in terms of engagement with the resort itself.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 20:56
Effectively, yeah, because it’s also very natural. It’s not like a big influencer; it’s someone that is going there as a normal person that a lot of people can relate to, because it’s like me, no? So it’s easier also for the advertising to get into the target.

Carlota Pico 21:15
Definitely. Okay, so let’s talk about coronavirus, COVID-19. The economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic have heavily hit our industry, the marketing and advertising budgets of companies across the world. What major lessons have you learned about marketing during this time? And what do you think the future of social networks will look like?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 21:44
Okay, really interesting question actually. It’s true that at first when we started with the coronavirus, just in February, we started checking what was going on, started adapting some kind of communication, the platforms, or of course the shipping communication, these kind of things. But right after like two weeks or three weeks that was like hitting Italy and Spain, of course we decided we needed to change totally the content, because it wasn’t making sense to post about food when people is, of course, dying in Italy or dying in Spain, and afterwards in all the parts of the world. It’s difficult in that moment, because you need to assess like all the strategies. We also had like a lot of campaigns planned for summer, and for spring also, and we needed to stop it all. And I think that’s the key of all the things, also of the content, and also of the future. You have to be willing to do sacrifices in the marketing industry. And in our own experience, I think we did it great, because we were there like super fast. We changed all the communication plan that we had. So we started from zero, from scratch. We just went into a room and said, “Okay, this is happening in Italy and Spain. Let’s do a specific plan of communication for Italy and Spain and a totally different kind of content.” We weren’t posting about products; we were just posting, for example, things that you can do at home to be, I don’t know, relaxed. Or go more into meditation, into yoga, or into exercises afterwards that people were going to training at home. Then we moved there, but of course you need to stop, assess what is happening, and then adapt. And from that plan, then we built the one for Germany, because they entered afterwards, and then the one for UK, and then develop it. So I think coronavirus has taught us that of course nowadays marketing is super important. If you aren’t online, you aren’t anywhere, because something like this can happen and we only had like marketing and social media platforms. People were chatting through WhatsApp, or seeing their families through WhatsApp, through Instagram, because you couldn’t see each other. So I think it’s really important to have like, of course, a brand that is online. Because I also realize that there are a lot of brands that they don’t have like a proper website, or a proper social media platform. And I know it’s very difficult. I know, some people wouldn’t be willing to have like a marketing department. But I mean, the world is the world, we are changing, and of course we need to be present and we need to be focused on the moment. So I would say to take that as something for the future. If something comes, take it, learn from it. Don’t try to say okay, maybe it will pass, because if it’s going there, it’s like TikTok, no? A lot of people were also, and a lot of brands would say, “I don’t know how to start on TikTok, it’s a lot of work, another social media platform to invest.” But I mean, that’s how it is. Like all the business are evolving, and we need to do it as well.

Carlota Pico 25:07
Yeah. So embrace changes and run with them.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 25:11
Yeah, totally. And fast.

Carlota Pico 25:13
As fast as you can go. In a smart way, of course.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 25:17
Of course.

Carlota Pico 25:19
Okay well, we are moving into the rapid-fire part of our interview, which will be a set of questions, recommendations that you give to our audience. The first question would be your favorite app at the moment.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 25:32
I would say TikTok.

Carlota Pico 25:34
Why?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 25:36
At first because I was like, kind of a skeptic on it, and I was like, “Oh, I don’t know, to try it, to not try it…” And nowadays I realize like it’s funny, like people, and with these times also, people want to see something that makes them laugh, to have fun, also be creative. I think it’s a great tool to be creative. So yeah, I will take that.

Carlota Pico 26:01
Even for B2B companies?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 26:03
Totally. I think Red Bull, for example, is making a great impact on TikTok, and you would say, but it’s extreme sports, it’s not dance, but they have like targeted, they have like found, I don’t know, a kind of small area where they fit, because they can do like videos of sporty people with the music, and it works. So you just need to find the right kind of videos for your business and go with it, yeah.

Carlota Pico 26:34
Awesome. What about your source of inspiration? Where do you find that? Is there a marketing influencer that you follow and admire? Is it a hashtag that you follow and get your content from?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 26:48
Well I think of course, all social media is like a constantly evolving content idea. But nowadays, for example, with my YouTube project, I started it because I was following a YouTuber that is called Nutty Foodie Fitness. And I thought she was doing great because it’s very natural. It’s not like a gamer YouTuber or anything like that. It’s also kind of related to fitness. But she also like found the specific, like, what made her special. That was like, she can eat all the food she wants and she’s fit. Of course, she also takes care of herself. But she’s very natural and people love that. So yeah, for example, my YouTube inspiration was her. I recommend, really recommend you check her.

Carlota Pico 27:37
Awesome. What’s your YouTube channel’s name, so that our audience can also check out your channel?

Olga Alejandre Dorado 27:42
Of course, thank you. Olga Alejandre. It’s my name.

Carlota Pico 27:46
Okay, Olga Alejandre. Awesome. Well, our last question of today’s interview will be a book, a publication or an event that you’re a fan of and could recommend to our audience.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 27:59
A book I would say that really changed me, it’s called “The 5 AM Club” from Robin Sharma. He’s kind of a guru, like mental guru, and is evolving into like a speaker and these kind of things. And the book, it kind of gives you, it’s a story about two people. They’re in a, like life situation that is very problematic with the work, with the life partner, and everything like that. So you can relate to them. But then it gives you strategies, so of course, waking up at 5 am, which is very difficult. But then also to be present in the moment, to understand people need, that also like being around people is the most important thing, understanding that and… Yeah, I think it really gives you a lot of life lessons that we could use.

Carlota Pico 28:52
Beautiful, very beautiful. Well, thank you so much Olga. Those were awesome tips and I really enjoyed having you on the show today.

Olga Alejandre Dorado 29:01
Thank you so much, Carlota. Thanks to you.

Carlota Pico 29:04
And thank you everyone for listening in. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out TheContentMix.com. We’ll be releasing interviews like this one every week, so keep on tuning in and see you next time. Bye!

Olga Alejandre Dorado 29:20
Bye!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai