Welcome to episode 14 of Creative Collaborations: Conversations with Veronica and Jillian. In this episode Veronica and Jillian discuss Deloitte's predictions for 2023 trends, including expanding markets, internal sustainability efforts, embracing creativity, and emerging tech.
Todays' episode starts with Veronica emphasizing the importance of human touch in personalization, while Jillian suggests focusing on specific groups of customers and adding value to them based on their needs. They discuss the use of snail mail for a more personalized touch but caution against insincere gestures like automated birthday cards from companies.
Veronica Guguian discusses the importance of internal sustainability efforts and how it is often overlooked in favor of big corporate initiatives. She emphasizes that only a small percentage of companies genuinely prioritize sustainability based on their values, while others simply comply with legislation out of fear. Veronica believes that education and a shift in mentality are needed for sustainable practices to become more widespread. Jillian Vorce agrees and suggests that there is an opportunity for organizations to showcase the benefits and profitability of sustainable business processes. They also touch on the significance of creativity as a core value in business, highlighting its role in problem-solving and differentiation. Both speakers share personal experiences related to their cultural backgrounds that have influenced their perspectives on creativity.
Jillian Vorce discusses the emergence of AI and its impact, highlighting concerns about e-waste and water consumption. Veronica Guguian emphasizes the need for proper education on using AI effectively. They also discuss the importance of aligning marketing and sales teams, debunking the misconception that they are interchangeable roles. They mention the trend of using social media for customer service and recommend resources on customer care. The transcript also touches on prioritizing social responsibility, short videos (segs), and SEO trends.
Veronica Guguian asks for feedback on implementing trends in business and wants to know how people utilize predictions made by big companies. She encourages listeners to share their opinions through comments, email, or direct messages. Veronica is curious about when people look at these trends and whether they integrate them into their strategies. Jillian Vorce adds that they will reconvene on Friday for a meeting after Veronica takes a break.
People & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/blogging-statistics/
About Veronica Guguian
- Website: https://spinideas.nl/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-guguian
About Jillian Vorce
- Website: https://thejilliangroup.com/better
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianvorce
Credits
- Music Composed by BeeLa Music
- Voiceover by Amanda Balagur
Jillian Vorce
Hello and welcome to episode 14 of Creative Collaboration: Conversations with me and Veronica. It's Veronica and Jillian. And I'm Jillian.
Veronica Guguian: And I'm Veronica. And thank you for coming back. And in today's episode, because we are heading towards the end of the year, we are thinking, how about we look at the predictions in terms of marketing that were made at the beginning of the year? Versus the reality and could be fun, we just did some research and grabbed a couple of predictions from companies like Deloitte or HubSpot and a couple of others, and now we're just going to have fun with it.
Jillian Vorce: Yes. What's more fun than talking about trends and predictions in reality? What's more fun than that? So, I mean, we really know how to have a good time.
Veronica Guguian: But I think it's very important because a lot of people at the beginning of the year, myself included, like, let's be honest here, we put a lot of weight into, oh, these big names, big companies. They are doing research and for sure.
Jillian Vorce: They know what I know.
Veronica Guguian: Talking about, but did anyone actually sit down and look at, okay, they're predicting this, but could it actually happen? What's the reality? What do we need to look at? How much weight and value do we need to place on those? And I'm not saying they are doing a bad thing. These are companies I admire and I like, and we are definitely going to look at them. But let's be a little bit realistic because this is what a business owner should do, right? Is it actually worth it, spending time, allocating time on this? And what's the percentage? Them being a reality, of course, will not be 100% because that is impossible. But also, how much of my resources should I allocate to their prediction versus my intuition, my predictions, and my analysts?
Jillian Vorce: My data, and my own data? Which is what it is exactly.
Veronica Guguian: But before that, shall we share with our listeners what we were discussing before the start of this episode? Yes, go ahead.
Jillian Vorce: Pull back the curtain, Veronica, maybe.
Veronica Guguian: Okay, so I don't know if we made this public, but one of our goals, like juniors and mine, is to reach a threshold of 100 listeners to our podcast. And let's be honest, we always record like no one is listening. So probably this way, we are better than, and we are more authentic, I believe. But we are four people short of.
Jillian Vorce: Reaching our come on, we need four more downloads. But if you're listening now, that means we're over 100. Because by the time this one is live, if they're listening, we have no more listeners until this and only one more person. But chances are by the time this one goes live, and somebody's listening, we'll be over 100. So you're contributing to us. Thank you.
Veronica Guguian: And you share it. Looking at the data that we kept on saying, we do have quite a consistent growth. Thank you, everyone, for listening.
Jillian Vorce: But I will say the US market is showing up big time because I think it's like 44% of the US.
Veronica Guguian: Oh, my God.
Jillian Vorce: Imagine that. I know, right?
Veronica Guguian: So that reminds me of our previous episode about your business, the Hot Seat, and also discussing the US market versus the European market.
Jillian Vorce: I know. However, it's like the US is probably the same percentage if you add up all the European countries.
Veronica Guguian: Yes. And us. It's a continent.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, exactly.
Veronica Guguian: Treat it like Europe.
Jillian Vorce: Right. No kidding. That's true. It kind of is. It kind of should be. But in any way, do you want to approach time today? Do you want to start off with?
Veronica Guguian: Is it played by our listeners? Jillian is amazing. She actually took from different lists the main point.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, this is me.
Veronica Guguian: Yeah.
Jillian Vorce: The anal retentive organized one. This is me. Like, to a fault. It's sometimes good in business, but I will say in marriage, it's a little like, do we have to organize the spices by alphabetical order? It's like, no, I don't do that. I'm just kidding, come to my house.
Veronica Guguian: I need to organize my kids.
Jillian Vorce: I just like it when things are organized. It's so much more efficient that way. And she said to me the other day, she was like, she said, I'm sleeping with the enemies. I don't know if you know that old Julia. Yeah. I'm like, no, it's not. I'm not left that way, but anyway. Okay, business, here we go. The Way is just kind of trying to create a very quick punch list to consolidate the Deloitte predictions for 2023 trends. So, the first one was looking to expand markets and provide personalization. Number two is internal sustainability efforts. Number three was about embracing creativity and all that entails the willingness to take risks, et cetera. And four were about emerging tech. Yeah. So, just emerging tech. So those are the four from Deloitte. I have a few thoughts on those. Yeah, you start.
Veronica Guguian: Shall we take those ones? And we take one, and we exchange ideas, and we move.
Jillian Vorce: Perfect.
Veronica Guguian: So listeners, we don't really prepare the episodes before we have an idea about the topic, and then we just play. If you're wondering how this goes, what you hear is actually what is happening. So, the first one was to extend markets and provide personalization. What are your thoughts on that?
Jillian Vorce: I think personalization is key. I feel like the technology is there for us to do that, but I feel like not overplaying technology so that we lose sight of the person in the personalization. I think there are a lot of tools that do that, but honestly, I think from what I have seen in the small to medium-sized business world, so not the Deloitte level, I don't see this really as being fully realized. There's still a lot of ways to go with that.
Veronica Guguian: The personalization, I think there's a difference between personalization and the human approach, and I think we should go more towards the human approach. This is very dear to my heart and the way I run my business, and yeah, definitely, there are tons of tools that you can use to have this personalized. I feel we are going a little bit too much towards that, and it's overwhelming because everything is personalized, but it's personalized more in terms of niche if that makes sense. So you see clearly it's a sales funnel or marketing funnel that you are guided through but not really taking into account you as a human being. So, it becomes for me personally a little bit fake, and it's not how I understand personalization. And I think there's a difference between personalization and a human touch, like being taken care of and supported.
Veronica Guguian: Does that make sense?
Jillian Vorce: No, of course, I think so. But as you're describing, it makes me kind of laugh. So I don't know if this is what you're referring to or not but with the idea of personalization. So yes, we all now know that there are tools that can merge fields like hello, first name. We all know about the first name, right? We all know about that. So you could say, okay, we're personalizing. I don't think that really does it because that's so kind of we all know what that is. It's fake. It's not really personalized. So I think that's one thing.
Jillian Vorce: But I'm going to go here for a minute and see if I don't know if you think it's going to be connected, but to me, the opportunity that I see in this, that's been, I feel like underappreciated or underutilized in terms of the kind of personalization is specifically you're talking about marketing funnels and all of that. In my experience, a lot of small medium-sized companies don't necessarily think of it in those terms. And in some ways, I think that's a disservice. But in others, there's an opportunity to not think of people as a funnel. But instead, and here I'm finally now getting to my suggestion: the idea is to look at the composition of your kind of stakeholders, right? So let's focus on the one that is most typical, like the one that companies focus on, which is customers, right?
Jillian Vorce: So even within customers, you have previous customers, you have your current customers, and you have your prospective customers. So, if you were to isolate one of those groups, let's just say your past customers, right? And then to focus on that group and look at them and think about what information is useful to them in really looking at them and focusing on them and how you can add value to them. So whatever your service or product is that you sold to think through, okay, three months later or six months later or five years later, all of those points, what are the things that they will be thinking about or will be looking for or should be thinking about or should be looking for and to help bring those to light for them?
Jillian Vorce: So, to create content for specific groups of people based on where they're at in the lifecycle of your product or service that you have sold to them.
Veronica Guguian: I'm so happy you said that because, for me, that's personalization. But it goes a step further. Actually, what we do is some clients, you reach out to each of the clients, depending on your database, of course, and you make it personal, and you touch upon something that you did for them, and you know they need the next step. So it's built on what you said but steps further. Or you send them personalized letters, or you show them you really thought about them, not just they are part of an emailing list, for example, all day.
Jillian Vorce: Long, the way I talk about that is because I think that's huge. And that, to me, is the benefit when you approach your process and workflow from an efficiency standpoint and make sure that you don't have people. So, for example, I had one client that for years was having their office staff stuff envelopes and send cards out to people like appointment cards, and I'm like, that's a colossal waste of resources. These people's skill set is far above stuffing envelopes. So why don't we not do that? And why don't we find another way to address that need and reallocate those resources to doing something that's the highest and best use for those people and to do the thing that no technology or anything else can substitute for, which is the personal touch, but having it in a strategic time frame and schedule.
Veronica Guguian: And all of that and well thought. Don't do it just because you have to do it. What I like to do with my new clients is send a small snail mail.
Jillian Vorce: I love snail mail. Yeah.
Veronica Guguian: So a personal touch is always welcome. But it does need to make sense and needs to be, in my opinion, authentic. And here, I really think not the authenticity that everyone talks about now, but there needs to be a real thought behind it, not just doing it because everyone does it.
Jillian Vorce: Wait, hold on, I have to interrupt. What do you think about it? I don't know. Well, it just is a hypothetical. I won't put you on the spot. What do you think about companies that have a service plugged in that automatically spits out a birthday card to somebody when it's their birthday? Do you have that? Have you gotten those like a birthday card in the mail from a company that says oh, it's your birthday? Sometimes it'll be like 10% off or.
Veronica Guguian: Just like you have that usually from the big e-commerce company, and I do receive them. It depends on the services that you have. So if you are selling clothes, for example, that's a nice reminder or cosmetics or whatever, something like that could be a nice way to get them back. I think you could do it better, and everybody does it at this point.
Jillian Vorce: That's why I was asking, do you think it's personalization, or do you feel like if you get a birthday card from a company, do you feel like, oh, thank you? To me, what I feel like is, oh, you just wasted this paper. Am I like a stick in the mud, or it's like they really thought?
Veronica Guguian: Of it, they don't really think about it. And this is why I'm saying it depends a little bit on the services for us that we are B, two B, and the number of clients that we have is way smaller. When you receive that, you are like, oh, they actually know about this, so it will be much more appreciated, and I don't need a discount. It will be like, I really thought about you, and here is like the harmonica story that you have, for example, that I will appreciate. Honestly, if I need a new cream and I get a 10% discount, I will be happy. But I'm not going to feel, oh, they thought about no, I'm not going to feel I know it's just a sales tool. So it kind of depends on which company it comes from.
Jillian Vorce: Okay, so what about any of the other ones you want to take a swing at? Two, three, or let's go.
Veronica Guguian: So internal sustainability efforts are the second one. I'm a little bit torn here because you have the SCGS that is big now, and everybody, like the big corporations, actually hire huge corporates, huge consultancy companies to come and help them. And everyone forgets about the small ones. And I'm part of different groups of small entrepreneurial groups. It is a hot topic, and I think it's a very important one and I think it should be taken seriously. But it's a difference between being, oh, we just need to do it, and let's just come up with something that we don't really believe in. And I think that's 99% of what is happening, and then you have the 1% that actually do it because it's in line with their values and what they want to do and their mission.
Jillian Vorce: So you're telling me that my market opportunity is 1%.
Veronica Guguian: You need to grow it. I think it's also actually 1% of the entire world, which is not that bad.
Jillian Vorce: Not too bad.
Veronica Guguian: And it's here because you have the legislation that allows you basically to take it into account. It's like corporate CSR, how CSR was, I don't know, 20 years ago, something like that. This is the new CSR, basically, but with a different name and slightly different approach. That doesn't mean it can't do good, and different important issues can't be addressed, and something good can't come out of it. But people need education. They don't really understand what it stands for. They don't understand how to use it. And I think everyone is acting out of fear at this point. Instead of acting, let's actually create something. So once you are switching this mentality, then your market is growing.
Veronica Guguian: But of course, when you had the GDPR right, and you had to have the policies listed, the terms and conditions and everything, the first thing that people do, they react out of fear. I don't want to be fined. I don't want to be not in line with the legislation or what I need you to provide. Right? I need to be what's the word I'm looking for. Compliant.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah.
Veronica Guguian: So I think now, because it's so new, everyone is acting towards that. It's also how we had the 2030 agenda with the Sustainable Goal. I think we moved from that towards ECGs. So it's a hype trending topic. Everyone discusses it, but I doubt how many actually understand what it stands for and how they should prepare. And it's actually about the business process internally. How do you integrate that internally? How do you line that with your values and purpose and I doubt they really understand that.
Jillian Vorce: So the one thing I'll say about this one is to share what my perspective is, my suggestion, and what feels to me like an obvious gap in the marketplace, which is for companies that are providing kind of sustainable related stuff to do a better job of showing mainstream businesses what the opportunity is. Because I think a lot of businesses associate sustainability efforts with cost and they don't necessarily have a strong handle on what the opportunities are with it. And so, for me, I talk a bit about sustainability as a responsibility of companies because I believe every business is responsible for doing its part. Right? But I also think it comes with a price tag called opportunity.
Jillian Vorce: But I think it would be amazing if there are more organizations, consultants, folks, blogs, et cetera out there that are routinely showing the opportunities that are available or how to adapt sustainable business processes or an ESG framework or whatever. It has actually helped the company to better, which is to grow or to be more profitable because that's a whole different thing. But anyway, so I think that's the.
Veronica Guguian: Opportunity, I agree with you. And that actually can mean more profit and more niche service because that's actually what it is. Like, look at your business and the processes and how you run it and the stakeholders. But I think it's scary, and everyone is working from a fearful position. The mentality is that I need to get one more day, one more quarter, and so on and so forth. So, instead of actually focusing on creation, they are focusing on the negative because each action has a positive and a negative, right? And it depends on the perspective that you take and how you approach it. So, I think it's more of a mentality thing. But considering also the politics and what is happening now with the words everywhere, yeah, I know everyone is anxious, and no one is. What will happen? What certainties do I have?
Veronica Guguian: So I think that also has an influence on this. And then, if you're running your business and you're struggling to keep your clients or get new clients, and some of them are affected by the war, or they are not investing because of that, it's a very fine line on how to approach it.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, I agree. So you just mentioned creativity. I don't know if we go through each one, this is going to be like a marathon episode.
Veronica Guguian: We can't do that.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah. Do you have anything else you'd like to share in reference to the Deloitte four? We'll call it.
Veronica Guguian: Creativity. It's a core value of my business. You do need to be creative, and that makes your business different. For me, if you're not creative, you're not curious, and it will be so boring, then you'd better stay home and sleep honestly. And being creative doesn't mean it requires a lot of effort; actually, in my perspective, it will simplify your work. And it's about just having a different perspective. Just don't do things like everyone else does them. Just take a step back and see what is actually important to you. And creativity was always important. So I find it actually a little bit sneaky from them and lazy to place their creativity because this shouldn't be a trend.
Jillian Vorce: This should be a core item that should appear standing. Yeah. So we had our episode on creativity as a business strategy, which was episode four, where we talked quite a bit.
Veronica Guguian: I admire you for remembering the number.
Jillian Vorce: Of episodes in full disclosure, I did not. I just looked at our sheet quickly to reconfirm what number it was. So, I just had a quick peek to see. So it's episode four. But the part that I think is relevant and the part that I focus on the most in terms of creativity because I approach it a little bit differently than you. I think of it as a necessity, especially during times of angst or turbulence or just like what's the word I want to say when you're unstable. Yeah, instability, yeah, for sure. It is to be creative about the way that you do things because, a lot of times, there's a more cost-effective way to do something, and it just makes you be more kind or try to be more objective in actually looking at your business.
Jillian Vorce: Kind of holistically to think about what else are other ways that you can do things. So I think there's an opportunity that happens, similar to an article I wrote at the beginning of COVID saying, wow, what an amazing opportunity this is. And I went through four different facets of a company, what the opportunities were, and how they could be revisited to make better use of the time that we had. So I think creativity is kind of an obvious one, and it should be just like a standing operating procedure for how we run business. I don't think it is enough, which is probably why it's listed as a trend. But I would say there's a great opportunity with that.
Veronica Guguian: I think it's also a cultural thing because I was chatting with a Romanian for the ones that don't know.
Jillian Vorce: Did you say for the listener that doesn't know listeners? I was like, that's hilarious. So, who is this listener?
Veronica Guguian: Yeah, okay, go ahead.
Jillian Vorce: Sorry.
Veronica Guguian: Anyways, so I grew up when I was a kid during the communist era and the revolution. I was a teenager at that period. So a lot of transition. But all that environment did teach us how to be creative because the resources were limited. Right? So, in that case, you do need to look at things differently and see my resources are limited. How can I get where I want to go with what I have at my disposal? Or how can I get what I need? How do I approach the person who has it, or how do I approach the situation in order to get it? So I think I do see all of this actually to my advantage because that opened a different way of thinking, perceiving, and approaching situations and forced me to be creative, basically.
Veronica Guguian: So this way, for me, how I am filled is something natural. I need to think about it and bring it from my core. Yes, and I met with other Romanian friends over the weekend and were discussing this and you see that in different nationalities, for them, life was more abundant, for example, so all the resources were there. It's beautiful, but at the same time, I think that's a disadvantage for them because then you're not obliged, or you're.
Jillian Vorce: Not forced to be innately wired.
Veronica Guguian: I do see all of that as an advantage, actually.
Jillian Vorce: Interesting. Yeah, just for 2 seconds. So I grew up in chaos, so that's why it's core for me to create order and structure.
Veronica Guguian: I do need structure as well; otherwise, I agree with that. With the structure, you can't build, and then you have the structure and limited resources, and then you are able to grow, or sometimes I do feel you just need to jump and see what happens, but then you need to stop, take a step back and create the structure because otherwise, you can't really grow.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, that's true. So I'll just make one quick comment on number four from Deloitte, and then maybe we can just have a quick look at what you want to pick out from the HubSpot list. Yeah, let's just pick two because sure.
Veronica Guguian: I don't think we have time for everything.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, so just quickly, on number four from Deloitte about emerging tech, I think this one is so spot on. I mean, look at the explosion that happened this year with AI. This one was like they're spot on with this one. It's like yeah, AI has been around for a while, but it seems like it just hit the tipping point and became the critical mass, and it's really interesting. Yeah, it's really interesting. I've been saying that observing the US market from afar, right from here all the way over here, I've seen so much chat and buzz and all the hype around AI, everything, and it's like the cool, sexy, shiny bubble right now and everybody wants to talk about that. It's great. And I also went to a social enterprise conference recently, and that session was standing-room only.
Jillian Vorce: So I can see that there's that it's interesting, it's cool, it's the new thing and all of that. However, what's alarming to me is the cost of it. What I mean is the e-waste concerns are pretty substantial. The e-waste and just the water consumption alone, and you've already mentioned the SDGs and such and know articles. There are plenty of highly reputable. Scientists and organizations and whatnot, talking about the water problems that we're looking up, looking at over the next decade and beyond. So anyway, it's interesting to see that, yes, AI, I'll admit there's amazing functionality and things that it can do. I just did a really pretty sophisticated spreadsheet task that would have taken me a million hours, and it happened in five minutes.
Jillian Vorce: So I understand what it is, but I hope that people will become more aware of what the cost of it is, and that's somehow factored in. I'm not sure how that would happen, but that's my concern about it.
Veronica Guguian: I think people talk about it because it's a hot topic. As you said, it's trending. However, they don't really know what they are talking about, so they don't have the time to properly educate themselves on how to use it. You have the ethical issues, there are a lot of issues here, and a lot of companies' costs are still high at this point, so not everyone has access to everything. You do have free ones, but I'm talking about really properly implementing it at a company level, not for you to create an Excel in all your services and things like that. The cost can be quite high, depending on how you want to go. And I'm talking about this because we just signed a partnership with a company implementing this. So depending on the budget, you can do more or less.
Veronica Guguian: But I think the core is actually people are not really sure how to use it, and they are not really 100%. I think they are using 1% of how much they can get out of it. And this is because they are not educated, and there are not enough companies really educating them because the technology is still so young. So we are in the process of discovering how I can use it, how I can improve my processes with it, and how I can actually turn my business into a more ethical and sustainable business with it. And, of course, you're going to have the downside.
Jillian Vorce: But even that is so interesting because, yeah, I was shocked even at that conference how few people were aware. There are a lot of articles out there off the top of my head. There's one from Earth, so we'll include the link to that. But just to be able to see because even Microsoft and Google have come out and shared their data about the water consumption and what's going on and how they're now trying to reuse the water and whatnot because it is a massive drag on the system or a cost on the system. The infrastructure and the e-waste problem is already a major problem. So I think you're right. I think a lot of small businesses haven't the slightest idea. I feel like it's a different version of Twitter. Like when Twitter was like, what? They don't even do anything, it's like a tweet.
Jillian Vorce: Like I remember I used to say to clients and my people like, oh, Twitter. And they'd say, oh, tweet. Ha. They didn't get it right. And so I feel like this is a tweet on steroids kind of a thing, but still so a lack of awareness about what it is and how it can be utilized or harnessed, but then also the ability or just awareness of how to moderate it or to just simply know. Are you going to like the carbon offsetting bit? What are you going to do?
Jillian Vorce: So if you're going to utilize this, at least be aware that it's like, I think that what's the word I want to say conversion is, like, for every five, there's an article I could link to with this, but for every five begins with A-P-I was going to say proof prompts for every five prompts. Like for example, in a chat GPT, for every five prompts, it's like one liter of water that it takes.
Veronica Guguian: Oh, God.
Jillian Vorce: Right. So just to be able to know when you're doing this. Okay, so now for me, doing my little project, it just took, I only know, gallons, like five gallons of water. Okay, so what am I going to do now to try to offset that, compensate for that? So that's my bit about that. But for sure, Deloitte knocked it out of the park with that one—emerging tech.
Veronica Guguian: They did it.
Jillian Vorce: The AIP. So anyway, how about HubSpot? Any that you want to chat about with HubSpot?
Veronica Guguian: I see here the alignment between marketing and sales teams.
Jillian Vorce: Yes, and I need to approach that.
Veronica Guguian: Yeah. Episode six.
Jillian Vorce: Did I already miss that one up? No, four was creativity. Six were marketing and sales. All right, go ahead.
Veronica Guguian: Sorry, but it's something that I keep on saying, and marketing is not sales. Sales is not marketing. They do work together. I actually wrote an article that's a love affair between them, and one is serving the other one. But the reality is, you see, the sales team acts like they are the king and the marketing team are the slaves that they need to support them. And I apologize, but I have to just say it. It's such a big bullshit because one can't really properly work without the other.
Jillian Vorce: And the other way around, symbiotic really, they are.
Veronica Guguian: And one is not excluding the other, and they are not the same. So definitely, maybe now it's time for people to realize they are not Silas. They need to work together and just listen to episode six. You, yeah, I think we discussed that for 1 hour about that. How about another one?
Jillian Vorce: No, I have a different one. So the social media being used for customer service stood out to me, and that one, for me, feels like, wow, that's a trend. That, for me, feels like that should be obvious, especially for bigger brands. And I feel like most of us as consumers know, and if you don't already. This is a great tip. If you ever have trouble with anything, before you even try to call customer service, check them out on social media because, generally, they're going to respond quicker on social media than if you're waiting in a phone tree. So it's just how it is now.
Veronica Guguian: With airlines, for sure.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, airlines, absolutely.
Veronica Guguian: Airlines where you can't find a help desk or customer service.
Jillian Vorce: Exactly. Just waiting, and you have to press this, and you're stuck in the phone. So anyway, and then the suggestion or the resource I have for that, there's a company I know that's doing phenomenal in this arena called B Squared Media, and they do customer care through social media, do really phenomenal. And so, keeping in line with this idea of trends and such, I know they also publish, I believe it's an annual kind of report, so to speak, on the state of customer care. I think that just came out, or it's coming out soon. So, let me see if I can get that and add that link. Definitely lots of great data in a really well-run company that's working with brands around the world, a lot of big companies, but at their core, they also love small business, too.
Jillian Vorce: So, some really phenomenal resources. So, the customer service one stood out to me.
Veronica Guguian: How about you?
Jillian Vorce: Any other?
Veronica Guguian: I think the other ones are pretty. They are very in line with what we discussed, like prioritizing social responsibility. I think that goes quite hand in hand. Only the segs as well, the short videos. This has been here for a long time, so I don't really see it as new. And the SEO again, the SEO one forever.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, it shouldn't be a trend per se. No, I think the trend with SEO, at least as far as I have seen, is there are new opportunities that have opened up through Ga Four, but I'm not sure. I know that there are some differences in terms of how it's utilized in the US. Market versus the European market because of GDPR and all of that. However, there's a US company based in Chicago called Orbit Media, and they publish a tremendous amount of really high-quality, long-form content. And there's one specifically that I think is an updated annual report about specifically around SEO in blogging, just blogs in general for bloggers or company blogs, et cetera, in which ones, in what the trend is in terms of the format, the length, et cetera. That's really interesting.
Jillian Vorce: And it's packed with data points, so I can also include that link as well. It's really interesting just to be able to see again through the lens of SEO and what the trend is, what is actually working in terms of content creation with blogs. So I can add that.
Veronica Guguian: The point of this is these are our opinions, but what the listeners are going to get actually, it's a list of a lot of resources that you can utilize and just learn from them. And please, we need four more.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, sure.
Veronica Guguian: But I'm curious, actually, because I'm pretty sure we do need to actually start understanding our audience. So, we are probably still not going to launch a short survey. Please fill it in, guys, and help us help you provide better content. But I'm curious to see where you are in your business, actually, and what of these trends you start implementing or you're considering or what's your opinion about them? Because we as I don't know if you listened to the previous episode, but I'm a marketeer. I'm not going to say Jillian is a marketeer, but a business.
Jillian Vorce: I'm a recovering marketeer.
Veronica Guguian: A recovering market here. But what is interesting for us is to really see these are predictions done by big companies. But what I'm really interested in, and I know Jillian because I know her, is how you utilize them. Do you actually read them? Do you implement them, or are you aware of them, or how do you approach them? Do you just look at your data and apply them? Personally, I'm very curious, so I would love to hear from you in the comments or send us an email or a DM or whatever works for you. Both of us are very responsive and easy to reach, but I'm more interested in you and how you approach these trends. Are you actually looking at them at the beginning of the year or the end of the year?
Veronica Guguian: Are you trying to integrate them into your strategy, or you're just not interested in them?
Jillian Vorce: Yeah. So, we'll leave you with that thought to ponder.
Veronica Guguian: And don't forget to share with us.
Jillian Vorce: Yeah, don't forget to share. So that's a wrap-on the episode. What is it? Wow.
Veronica Guguian: All right, thank you all for listening. Until next time.
Jillian Vorce: Until next time. Cheers.